Carey drops semifinal to Floral Park

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For the second straight season, Carey’s dream of a county championship came to a halt in the semifinal round of the Nassau Class A boys’ basketball playoffs, as the Seahawks fell to intra-district rival Floral Park, 47-42, in a game played at the Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on the campus of Hofstra University last Saturday night.

Senior Matt Kelly’s driving layup with 1:12 to play broke a 42-42 tie. Nick Spillane and Mike Catanese each scored nine points for Carey, the No. 12 seed. Floral Park’s Kevin Cluess led all scorers with 17 points. The 16th-seeded Knights advanced to the county final where they will meet defending champion Valley Stream South this Saturday at 1 p.m. at Hofstra.

“Getting in foul trouble really hurt us,” Carey head coach Marty Kelly said. “When Catanese picked up his fourth, and we had to put him on the bench, we lost the lead and struggled to score. We didn’t shoot the ball very well, and we struggled on the foul line.”

Fouls and the free-throw line played roles in deciding the outcome. The Knights were seemingly shooting foul shots from the time their bus pulled up to the arena. Floral Park went to the line 29 times, while the Seahawks had just seven attempts from the charity stripe. Carey attempted just one free throw over the game’s first 23 minutes.

The Seahawks seemed to be in control midway through the third quarter when they took a 36-28 lead on a basket from Anthony Catapano off a nifty feed from Spillane. When Catanese was whistled for his fourth foul, despite appearing to have avoided making contact, the Knights picked up all the momentum.

Floral Park, which has been the talk of the tournament after knocking off No. 1 South Side, went on a 14-2 run to take a 42-38 lead with just over six minutes to play. Four different Knights found the bottom of the net during the run. Senior Jimmy Guerriero added 12 points. Brian Fox was a difference-maker. The freshman guard hit a clutch three-pointer, and was 4-for-5 from the foul line.

The Seahawks had five players recognized for their solid play in 2014-15. Senior forward Kieran Murchie and Catanese were All-County honorees, while Spillane, and seniors Tom Gallant and Ed Cosgrove picked up All-Conference recognition.

Catanese led the team with 12.7 points per game, while Gallant was the team’s top rebounder. Gallant pulled down 18 boards and scored a career-high 30 points in an opening round win over Seaford.

Despite the tough loss, Kelly was proud of his team’s run to the semifinals.

“When you make it to the final four two straight years, it’s never a bad thing,” Kelly said. “We dealt with a lot of injuries, so it was impressive to get things together, and go 7-3 in the conference. The guys took this loss very hard. They wanted this one real bad. They battled hard every night, and tonight they gave everything they had against a very good team.”