Malverne wins Class B title

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Malverne is back on top.

The Mules, who won seven of eight Nassau County Class B boys’ basketball championships from 2004-11, regained the title after a three-season drought with a convincing 69-46 victory over Carle Place at LIU-Post on Feb. 19.

Senior Kevin Young led a balanced scoring attack with 19 points and also grabbed 15 rebounds for third-seeded Malverne, which last celebrated a championship in the 2010-11 campaign under head coach Darrol Lopez. Senior Chris Hackett added 14 points, senior James Choisi had 13, and senior Kazeem Martelly chipped in 11 points and 10 rebounds.

“The defense came through like we were hoping, and we had a lot of contributions on offense,” Mules assistant coach Walter Aksionoff said. “On defense we stayed away from playing man, because that’s when we foul and get ourselves into trouble. Kevin and Kazeem controlled the boards and limited their second chances.

“I thought the kids did a tremendous job of executing everything we practiced,” he added. “This was a well-earned and deserved championship.”

Omar Martinez, who didn’t score for Carle Place in either regular-season defeat to Malverne, led the fourth-seeded Frogs with 17 points. Lucas Golon, who totaled 42 points in the regular-season meetings, was held to 13.

“It feels really good,” said Young, who scored 13 points in the first half to help the Mules (10-9 overall) build a 36-24 lead. “The past few seasons didn’t end the way we wanted them to. We worked hard during the offseason and have good chemistry.”

Though the Mules did most of their damage in the paint, they were hot from behind the arc out of the gate and raced to an 11-4 lead. Hackett, who drained four treys in the game, stuck a pair early and Young, who said he worked extensively on his jumper during the summer, sank one.

“You always want to have a good start in a big game like this,” Aksionoff said. “It took us a little while to get going in the semifinals against Cold Spring Harbor, but today we played well right from the start.”

Malverne kept the accelerator down in the third quarter and extended its lead to 49-25 just 3:20 into the second half. Martelly had five points, and Young and Mike James four apiece during a 13-1 run that put the Frogs in an insurmountable hole.

“I thought we took them out of their game,” Aksionoff said. “They have four shooters that could hurt us, but we didn’t let any of them get into a rhythm.”

The Mules, who will play Suffolk County representative Southampton for the Long Island Class B title on March 10 at LIU-Post at 6 p.m., took a 51-34 lead into the fourth.

“We were driven to win,” said Young, who had 22 points to lead a 48-44 win over Cold Spring Harbor in the semifinals on Feb. 15. “We’ve been working hard for a long time and got the results we wanted.”