Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Valley Stream South boys have played their best basketball as of late, winning three of their last four and riding a two-game win streak. This is familiar territory, though, since the Falcons started the season winning three of four.
“We’ve shown we can beat anybody on a given night and we’ve shown that anybody can beat us,” head coach Michael O’Brien said. “That’s something we’re really, really trying to get through going into the later stage now for the playoff push.”
Coming off an overtime 51-47 victory over Wantagh on Jan. 15, Valley Stream South suffered a loss to non-league opponent Friends Academy two days later. The Falcons managed to bounce back with wins against East Rockaway on Jan. 19, 64-45 and Plainedge last Saturday, 53-34.
Against League 6A rival Wantagh, the Falcons trailed 31-28 going into the fourth quarter. A key defensive adjustment and big shots from Valley Stream South forced overtime.
“We went to a 1-3-1 and they seemed to have a little bit of trouble with it,” O’Brien said regarding what changed in the win over Wantagh. It was kind of the first time we showed it all season. Some of our kids hit some big shots and they finished strong.”
Junior point guard Landon Jones, who averages 7.4 points per game, finished with 11 and was leaned on late against Wantagh.
“My biggest credit is probably to our point guard Landon Jones,” O’Brien said. “We went with a more veteran squad at certain points, and those are kids that don’t panic. They’ve been through it before, where teams will go on runs and we talk about it all the time. They kind of just rallied together and played hard.”
Senior Jaden Pryce, South’s leading scorer at 15.4 points per game, recorded 15 in the overtime thriller. Pryce also recorded 19 in the win over East Rockaway and 22 against Plainedge. He’s scored in double figures in five of his last six games.
“He’s our guy,” O’Brien said. “He’s our number one option and I’d love to say at this point he’s almost an automatic 14 or 15 points per game.”
Valley Stream South has gotten four to seven points per game from a few other players outside of Pryce’s double-digit average. Junior center Sixtus Okorie averages 6.4, sophomore guard/forward JT Reid averages 4.6 and senior guard Milton Ponce averages 4.4.
Against Plainedge, the two teams were knotted up 16 apiece at halftime, after the Falcons led 14-9 after the first frame. O’Brien said they were playing “slow,” but a personnel change is what sparked his offense.
“We were trying to pick up the tempo and play with a little bit of urgency,” O’Brien said. “We went with a smaller lineup. In the first half, we only had two assists and in the second half, we had 12 assists. I think that was the biggest difference.”
With a playoff berth still in sight for the Falcons, they entered this week 7-8 overall and 4-3 in league.
“We built on a little bit of confidence in the second half and hopefully if we can start putting four quarters together like that, then we can hopefully be a dangerous moving forward,” O’Brien said.
The Falcons will travel to Mineola this Friday at 5 p.m.
“That’s never an easy game for us,” O’Brien said. “They’re a really tough team. They’re in every game. The hope right now is all about one game at a time and just hope we get in.”
