Monday, April 21, 2025
Another county championship plaque wasn’t lifted at Farmingdale State College, but there’s no doubt the bar has been raised for the West Hempstead boys’ basketball team.
A year after winning the Nassau Class B title, the Rams made it consecutive trips to the county championship, doing so in Class A this season.
And while the season ended in a disappointing 80-70 defeat to Floral Park Saturday afternoon, it didn’t take long for Rams head coach Eric Rubin to appreciate the bigger picture.
“A few years ago, they would’ve signed up for three or four wins. Now our expectations are to win a championship,” Rubin said. “Things changed quickly and these guys were a big reason why.”
The third-seeded Rams got off to a hot start with Isaiah Blunt, Jonathon Houston and Alex Davis combining for five 3-pointers as the Rams led 23-16 after the first quarter.
But top-seeded Floral Park responded by outscoring West Hempstead, 27-8, in the second quarter to take a 43-31 lead into halftime.
Heading into the game, Rubin was concerned about the Knights’ 3-point shooting prowess and he was right with Floral Park knocking down 13 3-pointers. Brendan Martin led the way with 21 points, Anthony Caris added 19 points, Collin Murphy had 14 points and Joe Prestia added 10 for the Knights, who won their first county title since 2005.
“I thought we played hard, we came out strong. We knew they could shoot well and tried to be up on their shooters, but they were still able to get a ton of looks and buried most of them,” Rubin said. “We battled back and I’m proud of the way our guys fought. They showed a lot of heart.”
The Rams trailed 61-55 after three quarters, but led by Blunt (game-high 25 points), West Hempstead (15-8) pulled as close as 64-60 with 5-42 left following an Evan Wilson 3-pointer.
But Caris responded with a 3-pointer and Martin’s layup extended the Knights’ lead to 69-60 with 3:56 left as Floral Park extended its winning streak to 16 consecutive games with the second county title in program history.
Jonathon Houston had 14 points and Wilson added 13, nine of which came during West Hempstead’s fourth-quarter rally which came up a bit too short.
Still, Rubin’s third season as head coach ended with a second straight county championship appearance after West Hempstead won the Class B title a year ago, ending a 21-year title drought.
To get to the Nassau Class A championship game, the Rams beat seventh-seeded Valley Stream North in the semifinals, with Blunt and Wilson scoring 14 points apiece.
While departing seniors Blunt and Wilson will be sorely missed, their imprint on the culture change at West Hempstead will be felt for years to come.
“We knew repeating would be tough while moving up a classification,” Rubin said. “But all of us embraced the challenge. We really started to peak at the right time. We just fell one game short.”
