Bulldogs rally past Floral Park

Hewlett picked a great time for its highest-scoring quarter of the season.

The fifth-seeded Bulldogs, trailing No. 4 Floral Park by seven points in last Sunday’s Nassau Class A boys’ basketball quarterfinal playoff game, exploded for 28 in the fourth quarter to secure a 69-59 victory at Hofstra.

Senior center Michael Eckerle, who dominated in the paint and finished with a game-high 31 points and 15 rebounds, ignited a 15-0 run with a three-pointer to open the fourth. Twenty of his points came in the second half.

“Our job is to get him the ball as much as possible,” Hewlett coach Bill Dubin said of Eckerle, who shot 11-for-17 from the field and 8-for-10 from the foul line. “We never got away from the game plan, and he came up huge.”

So too did a host of others. Senior Dylan Pastor, who put the Bulldogs ahead for good with a three with 5:24 remaining, had 11 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Sophomore Dylan Sasson came off the bench to score nine points—all in the second quarter—and junior Josh Rivlin sank all six of his free throw attempts in the final 1:12 to seal the outcome.

“This was a big game,” Eckerle said. “I always want to do my best to help us win.”

Hewlett improved to 9-9 and advanced to face Elmont in a semifinal game on Friday at 6 p.m. at Hofstra. The top-seeded Spartans (17-2) won both regular-season meetings. Shamoy McIntosh had 21 points and Justin Wilson added 15 to lead Floral Park.

“A lot of people thought we didn’t belong in the top conference and counted us out during the season,” Dubin said. “But these kids worked hard and believed. They’re a great bunch of competitors.”

The game featured plenty of peaks and valleys. The Knights raced to a 12-5 lead behind a pair of treys from Tom Cotsalas, who scored all nine of his points from behind the arc. Eckerle scored seven straight points to tie it, then Sasson hit his first of four shots in the second quarter to give the Bulldogs their first lead. Hewlett’s advantage would swell to 28-20 behind Sasson and Pastor, but Floral Park closed the half with an eight-point spurt to pull into a tie.

McIntosh, who hit for 29 points in a win over Hewlett on Jan. 29, stood out in the third quarter after scoring just seven points in the opening half. He had 10 points in the third and set up Wilson’s thunderous two-handed dunk that gave the Knights their largest lead at 48-39. However, after the next time McIntosh scored, on two free throws with 4:11 left, Floral Park trailed by four and was in the middle of the Bulldogs’ fourth-quarter storm.

“I wasn’t happy with our defense most of the night,” said Dubin, “but in the end we got the job done.”