Friday, March 28, 2025
With dreams of capturing the program’s first-ever boys’ basketball county championship, East Meadow was unable to fully overcome a nightmare beginning to Saturday evening's Nassau Class AAA final.
The Jets dug out from a 20-point first-half hole and pulled even with Port Washington four times in the second half but never led in a 58-50 defeat before a capacity crowd of more than 3,000 at Farmingdale State College.
Ryan Shanahan scored 20 points, Kenny Daly addded 14, Izaias Clemmons 10 and Cole Reyes and Chase Kovar seven apiece as the top-seeded Vikings won their first county title since the 1946-47 campaign. They lost in the finals in each of the past two seasons to Baldwin.
“Definitely a surreal feeling but a great one,” Port Washington head coach Sean Dooley said. “You lose a couple and you never know when you’re going to get another chance at it. These kids worked their butts off and I feel they deserve it. East Meadow sure didn’t make it easy.”
The Jets, who had won 16 straight games including playoff matchups against Syosset and Uniondale, were held without a field goal over the final four minutes and finished 19-4. As they did all season, seniors Mazin Ibrahem (12 points), Nick DeStefano (10), Will Casseus (10), Brendan Cronin (8), Isaiah Perkins (7) and Izaiah Richards (3) led the way.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” East Meadow head coach Tom Rottkamp said. “Not just for what they did tonight coming back from 20 down in the loudest environment they’ve played in, but all season. This senior group won 36 games in two years and they all love basketball as much as I do.”
But the Jets weren’t loving the scoreboard through the first 14 minutes. They allowed the game’s first eight points and were in deep trouble trailing 32-12 before showing some life with a 10-point spurt to close the half.
“I called a few timeouts to try to settle us down,” Rottkamp said. “I crouched down and spoke to them at eye level and said ‘you’ve got to give us more,’ and they did.”
Ibrahem scored eight points during the late second-quarter surge and Cronin added a basket off a feed from Casseus, who was the Conference AAA-II Player of the Year.
Rottkamp said there were no notable adjustments during halftime.
“We didn’t want to change what we do,” he said. “We just needed to do what we do better.”
Behind their six seniors, the Jets carried over their momentum into the third quarter. All six scored during a 14-0 run that created the game’s first deadlock at 36. Shanahan’s four points inched Port ahead entering the fourth, 42-40.
“They’re a strong half-court team and I thought Shanahan in particular really hurt us,” Rottkamp said.
East Meadow pulled even for what proved to be the final time with 6:11 remaining on a Richards layup to make it 44-44, but Port Washington rattled off the next seven points to resume command.
“Credit to them,” Rottkamp said. “They’ve got experience when the stakes are high and maybe that was the difference. Our guys didn’t quit and we’ve got a lot to be proud of.”
