Thursday, October 1, 2026
West Hempstead’s boys basketball team closed January unbeaten in Conference VIII strongly positioned for a top seed in the Nassau Class A playoffs as the Rams eye a third straight finals appearance.
The Rams moved to 7-0 in league play and 13-3 overall with a 59-47 home win against Wheatley last Saturday and wins in the final two regular season games would clinch either the one or two seed in the postseason. West Hempstead is gearing up for another playoff run nearly a year after an 80-70 loss in the county championship prevented the chance at a repeat title.
“Making it to the finals is a great achievement, but we really had our goal of winning that game so we want to make up for what happened last year,” said West Hempstead head coach Eric Rubin. “They've been pretty good about taking the one game and game at a time and not looking too far ahead, and hopefully we get back there.”
Last Saturday’s Wheatley win was led by senior guard CJ Feglia, who posted a game-high 21 points, and junior point guard Alex Davis with 14. The Rams also got contributions from senior guard Jonathan Houston, who had 10 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, along with junior forward Yency Duran with eight points and eight rebounds. Junior forward
Jamir Houston also stepped up big with six points and five steals.
The Wheatley victory came three days after a 65-56 triumph at Cold Spring Harbor in which the Rams had four players in double figures led by 18 from Davis. West Hempstead also got 13 points from Duran, 12 by senior guard Jason Maldonado from four three-pointers and 10 by junior forward Jamir Houston.
”That is one of our advantages is we have four or five guys on the court at all times who are
capable of scoring double digits so we have a lot of balance when we need to,” Rubin said. "Everyone is pretty much capable of scoring which really helps and is tough to defend.”
Davis is the Rams’ leading scorer averaging over 18 points per game and he has strived by creating his own shots by penetrating to the basket.
Rubin said Houston has emerged as the team’s top defensive player and is among Nassau County’s leaders in steals this season. Houston proved big on the offensive end of the court in a 57-55 non-league win at New Hyde Park on Jan. 12 when he passed from the baseline to Duran with 0.7 second remaining for a buzzer-beating layup.
“Even though he's not one of our leading scorers he's so important passing the ball and on the defensive end he is as almost as good as anyone I've ever had,” said Rubin of Houston.
West Hempstead will travel to Carle Place for a Friday evening tipoff at 7 p.m. before concluding the regular season Feb. 12 against Oyster Bay at 5 p.m.
