King leads VSS over Lawrence in OT

In a boys’ basketball game filled with innumerable twists, turns, and little predictability, the one constant, as usual, was Valley Stream South High’s Dana King. The All-Long Island guard scored a school-record 47 points, including 24 in the fourth quarter and overtime, to lead the Falcons to a 78-74 victory over visiting Lawrence in front of a capacity crowd, last Friday night.

King scored the first six points of the extra session to give South, which won its sixth straight game, a 70-64 lead. The Golden Tornadoes never got closer than three. Lawrence, which fell to 3-6, was led by junior Sammy Robinson’s 16 points. The Falcons improved to 6-2 overall.

King, who has a knack for getting the officials to blow their whistles, went 16 of 24 from the foul line. None were bigger than the two he calmly swished with 9.6 seconds on the clock to tie the score at 64 and force overtime. 

South head coach Matt Johnsen wasn’t surprised by his team’s resilience. “We’ve played in front of large crowds, and understand how to play in pressure situations,” Johnsen said. “We have guys who know how to win games. We’re young, we were out of control at times, but we have Dana King. When we need to slow things down, when we need a basket, he takes over.”

Lawrence, which has been without All-County junior Marcus Saint-Furcy all season long, and recently lost two other starters, gave the defending Nassau Class A champions all they could handle. With a two-point lead and possession of the ball with 12 seconds to play, the Golden Tornadoes seemed to have the game in hand in regulation, but inexperience in closing out big games led to a few costly mistakes.

The Falcons ran out to a 36-26 lead at the break, but Lawrence showed its mettle when the teams took the floor for the second half. Sophomore Kamron Gilchrest, who scored all 12 of his points in the third quarter, scored the final seven points of the quarter to tie the score at 47.

During a frenetic fourth quarter, Robinson scored twice on nifty feeds from sophomore Terrin Roy, and Avrail Rogers and Adanté’ Oliver each scored clutch buckets. A put back by South’s Josh Robinson tied the score at 59 and brought the raucous crowd to its feet. 

South went cold from the line in the quarter, at one point missing five straight free throws, but King hit his last eight to close out the game.

Johnsen said he knows his young team is far from where it needs to be come playoff time. “We need to play better defense and get tougher on the boards,” he said. “There’s a lot we need to get better at. We struggled under pressure on offense, and the overall team defense needs to improve. We have a lot of inexperienced players. They need to get more comfortable with the ball in their hands.”

The Falcons look to keep their winning streak intact when they welcome in North Shore this Friday at 7:30 p.m.