By Brian Zanzonico
With 6.2 seconds remaining in the first overtime of the Nassau Class AA basketball semifinal at SUNY-Old Westbury on Feb. 25, heavily favored No. 3 Elmont was trailing a surprisingly game No. 10 Freeport, 60-57. Senior David Louis took the inbound pass from the far end of the court and drove up the middle of the floor. He spotted Duncanson gaining position beyond the three-point mark on the right wing, and fired a pass into Duncanson's hands. With the clock winding down, Duncanson nailed a jumper over two Freeport defenders that forced a second overtime and whipped his teammates into a frenzy.
"I wasn't planning to get the ball, but before the play I told myself I could hit the shot," Duncanson said.
But there was another period to play. After a brief, hug-filled celebration, the Spartans went back to work. In a hard-fought second overtime, they held a two-point lead with 30 seconds left, and were on the other end of a potential back-breaking shot when Freeport senior John Dabney set up for a go-ahead three-pointer. But Elmont senior Victor Bloise rejected the shot, and preserved a 68-65 win by stealing an inbound pass with five seconds left as Elmont (17-3) advanced to the Nassau Class AA title game March 1 against top seed Uniondale.
After the game, talk focused on Duncanson's last-second heroics. "I didn't think it would go in," said junior Brian Hutchinson (15 points), who, along with Duncanson, accounted for 13 of Elmont's 17 overtime points. "The chance of making that shot in that situation is not high."
Once he saw Duncanson's shot fall through the basket, Hutchinson said, he knew there was no way the Spartans would lose in the second overtime. "I said, 'The game is over,'" Hutchinson said. "In the second overtime, we got more aggressive. We didn't want another overtime."
According to Duncanson, who scored 21 points, he told the team during a time-out before the inbound pass that he would make the shot. "The play is designed for either guard to drive through the middle and kick it out," Duncanson said. "I told Louis to look for me. That I'd be ready."
Duncanson said he's been ready his whole life. Like most children who pick up a basketball, he hit thousands of imaginary game-winning shots while honing his skills in the yard of his Elmont home. "Your whole life you practice little buzzer-beaters," he said. "But nobody expects it to happen like that."
Duncanson's accuracy, Elmont's near-perfection from the free throw line (17 of 18), Bloise's defense and Louis's shooting - 16 of his 20 points came after halftime, and he was 10 for 10 from the foul line for the game - has Elmont in position to win the first county championship in school history. Standing in the way is Uniondale (16-4), the four-time defending Nassau County champion. Though it was taken to overtime in the semifinal against No. 5 Farmingdale, Uniondale has won its last 9 games.
"Uniondale better be ready," Elmont coach George Holub said after the game. "We're not Farmingdale."
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