Despite having its winning streak end last Thursday night, the Malverne boys’ basketball team has positioned itself well for a second regular-season conference championship in three seasons thanks to a recent hot stretch and success against conference foes.
The Mules (7-5, 4-1 Conference A7) had won four straight and seven of nine before a disappointing 55-52 setback at Seaford, which marked the team’s first loss in five divisional games. Friends Academy, the defending Class A champs, beat North Shore that same night to draw even with Malverne atop the standings.
Malverne will visit Friends in a rematch on Friday night. In the first meeting on Dec. 12, the Mules outscored their Locust Valley rivals 17-7 in the first quarter and held on for a 63-56 win behind 20 points and nine steals from senior guard Lorenzo Maione.
“The toughest game, I think, will be going to Friends,” associate head coach Walter Aksionoff said. “We beat them at our place, but going back there now, it’s a tough place to play.”
The Mules held on to sole possession of first for as long as they could during their winning streak that bridged the New Year, but it certainly wasn’t easy. On Dec. 30, they trailed Carle Place by 11 points at halftime before rallying for a 63-61 overtime win to avoid a third straight loss and pulled off a more improbable victory on Jan. 6 by coming back from 13 down in the final minute of the third quarter to shock North Shore 52-50.
North Shore held a 50-46 lead with less than 40 seconds remaining in regulation when sophomore Shane Lee hit a 3-pointer from the right corner to cut the Mules’ deficit to one. Lee then harassed Vikings guard Lucas Schimsky into a turnover that was collected by sophomore forward Isaiah Smith, who would eventually drill another trey from the left arc with 19.6 seconds left for the winner.
Lee and Smith were also the defensive stars by trapping Schimsky at the right baseline in the final seconds, forcing the Viking to put up an off-balance shot that fell short before the buzzer sounded.
Smith finished with 12 points to go with an astounding 18 rebounds. Junior Bryce McIntosh led Malverne with 15 points and Lee scored eight.
“He doesn’t score much, but he is a presence getting rebounds [and] getting some blocks,” Aksionoff said of Smith.
The Mules have been strong finishers this season by virtue of their plus-51 scoring advantage (209-158) in the final frame.
“That comes into conditioning,” Aksionoff said. “The better teams can hang a little bit, but the other teams don’t usually have one or two superstars. Not many teams play like we do, full court the whole game and press, press, press.”
Smith is averaging almost 11 points a game in his varsity debut season. Maione (9.8 ppg), McIntosh (8.0), and sophomore Andrew Innocent (7.3) have provided scoring depth, with the latter scoring 72 of his 88 points from beyond the arc.