Thursday, October 1, 2026
Valley Stream North boys’ basketball is still fine-tuning its offense, but so far, it has been good enough for a 6-3 start as it attempts to duplicate its wonderful campaign of a season ago.
Senior Vincent Rienzie is averaging 16 points and junior Tristan Mitchell is scoring at a 14-point clip. Rienzie has been a fastbreak machine while Mitchell has excelled in halfcourt.
Mitchell keyed its biggest win of the season Dec. 23, 68-56, over tough West Hempstead when he drained four 3-pointers and racked up 25 points.
In last season's Nassau Class A semifinals, the Spartans were taken down by West Hempstead. Revenge was sweet.
"West Hempstead was a big win,'' Rienzie said. "That felt like a pretty big one because everyone contributed to it.''
However, head coach Michael McVeigh is striving for more efficiency from his offense, feeling it hasn't adjusted to different defensive schemes.
"We have a lot of work to do,'' McVeigh said. "We haven't played our best yet. We have to figure out what to do offensively and rebounding the ball better when we play some better teams in our league.''
VSN is 1-1 in Conference A6, beating Plainedge in a big victory but losing to Wantagh.
Rienzie is primed for an even bigger season if he becomes more versatile. "He's doing a great job,'' McVeigh said. "It takes us time to figure out how they're guarding and what they're taking away and adjust to that. Vince is doing a great job in transition and finds easy baskets for himself.''
Rienzie thinks his game will take another leap forward. "(Coach) wants more of a balance (from me),'' Rienzie said. "He wants me to facilitate, but he relies on me to get in the paint and attack because I can apply pressure by either scoring or facilitating to my teammates.''
Mitchell has been a boon in halfcourt sets. He's not leaking out in transition because he usually guards a bigger, elite offensive player. "He's done an awesome job in the set offense,'' McVeigh said. "He doesn't get out in transition as much. When settled, he finds a way to make tough shots. ''
The largest surprise is junior Kai Fields, averaging 8 points and shooting 32 percent from 3.
"He's made the biggest jump from last year to this year,'' McVeigh said. "Last year he was more role player – come in, play defense, pass. This year he's been one of our best outside shooters guarding the best player on the other team. I wasn't sure if he'd be this good and he's been really good.''
Senior 6-1 forward Noah Obukwelu has also been a critical cog on the boards, averaging 6 rebounds. "He's figured out how to play more of a big-guy position,'' McVeigh said. "He's really a guard. But he's getting rebounds. He's tried to anchor us on defense.''
The next conference game is a monster home matchup against county champion, Floral Park, on Jan. 6. "We got to find a way to score the ball against them,'' McVeigh said. "We always seem to have a hard time scoring against their defense.''
Rienzie is confident it's going to be OK. "We're off to a good start but there's always more to improve on,'' Rienzie said. "We can make a big playoff run considering the pieces we have and experience. We'll definitely get a lot of wins in conference and we can make a big run.''
