New York: Two big achievements in Long Island high school basketball

One game marked the culmination of what must have felt like a neverending quest.

The other game marked the culmination of what must have felt like . . . a neverending quest.

Hey, wait a minute. What’s going on here?

That was the question on Long Island on Sunday night, as a pair of very noteworthy games put the exclamation point on the holiday weekend and set the table for the final week of 2009 in fine fashion.

First, Ted Adams became the winningest boys basketball coach in Nassau County history when his Hempstead club topped Samuel Gompers 71-57 on the strength of tournament MVP Ismael Pierre’s 16 points, eight steals and eight rebounds in the Junius Kellogg Classic at Manhattan Center.

The victory was No. 480 for Adams in his 27th season on the bench. Hempstead’s third victory of the season pushed him past the 479 triumphs Russ Bastin accumulated at Uniondale from 1954 to 1992.

Adams is more than 100 wins ahead of any active Section VIII coach and is 37th on the all-time state list. He’s also 15th among active coaches, with Jack Curran at Archbishop Molloy (914 at the start of the season) and Ed Petrie of East Hampton (746) well ahead of the rest of the field.

If Adams snared the Nassau career achievement award, then DeShawn Moorer at least got his name into the conversation for performance of the year by pouring in 56 points and grabbing 12 rebounds for Malverne in a 92-89 victory against West Hempstead in four overtimes on Sunday.

Moorer hit 18 field goals, including three 3-pointers, and 17 free throws in the epic performance. His two free throws with 33 seconds left in the fourth overtime broke a tie, and he followed eight seconds later with a bucket to make the score 92-88.

Corey Alexander chipped in with 22 points and had 10 assists for Malverne, which held a 46-38 lead after three quarters before West Hempstead went on a 21-13 run in the fourth quarter. The teams were knotted at 68 after the first OT, 76 after the second OT and 83 after three OTs. Jamel Flash topped West Hempstead with 26 points, followed by Daniel Minto with 23.

The list of large-school contenders in Section I seems always to begin with Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, with one or two other challengers moving into contention each winter.

That challenger in Class AA this year may very well be North Rockland, which went on a 22-2 run late in Sunday’s Slam Dunk final and beat White Plains 59-43 to take home the trophy.

A day earlier, North Rockland turned heads with a 60-56 victory over Long Island Lutheran, ranked third in New York in Class A, after putting up just 19 points in the first half at the Westchester County Center. North Rockland went to the free-throw line 33 times compared to six for Lutheran.

The Red Raiders seemed on the verge of something special a year ago. With a roster heavy on underclassmen, they were on the verge of moving into the sectional final before wilting late against Poughkeepsie and settling for a 20-3 season.

They brought back their top 10 players this season, however, and could be positioned to challenge the Big 2.

Against White Plains, John Perez scored 15 second-half points and 19 overall, and Jorge Cruz added 16.

"The kids didn't panic," coach Chris Roff told The Journal News. "As a coach, it's great to look out on the floor and know you have kids who are yelling out directions to each other and playing as a team."

Fresh off of guiding Perry to a Section V three-peat from 2000 to 2002, Dave Gillett retired with a career coaching record of 377-175 and 12 Livingston County division championships. He was inducted into the Section V Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Gillett rejoined the Yellowjackets this season, taking over for Rod Allen. He has Perry off to a 4-0 start heading into the 28th annual Batavia Lions Club Tournament.

"I hadn't lost my love of the game, but I didn't realize how much I missed it," Gillett told The Daily News in Batavia. "The game plan is (to do) the same things that made our program solid: man-to-man defense and team depth."

Said senior captain Deric Cicero: "He has us practicing as a team and practicing hard. We don't just do drills — we play. Everything we do has a purpose. We're not just running for the sake of running."

* Yonkers Gorton senior point guard Michael Reyes learned Wednesday that the state overturned Section I’s ruling that had kept him off the basketball court. Reyes had been ruled ineligible following his transfer from Yonkers High in the spring. His two appeals were shot down by Section I, but schools Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio appealed to the NYSPHSAA on the grounds that the transfer was for academic purposes.

* Don’t waste possessions against Corinth. The Tomahawks are 5-1 despite scoring just 47.8 points a game. However, they’re allowing an amazing 26.2 points a game while holding four foes to 23 or fewer points so far.

The Harvard Cup may not be going away altogether, but it will probably never be the same.

Speculation began two years ago that Buffalo’s city schools would move into the Section VI Federation, and it became reality last week when Superintendent James Williams and district A.D. Dave Thomas made the decision that Buffalo’s nine public schools would no longer compete as a separate league.

Those schools already competed in all other Section VI sports, but football had been different. The teams played a round-robin schedule in the fall, followed by a championship game on Thanksgiving, a tradition with 106 years of history behind it..

Bennett, Burgard, East, Grover Cleveland, Hutch-Tech, Lafayette, McKinley, Riverside and South Park will now be assigned to Class AA or A divisions in Section VI and be eligible for the sectional and state playoffs. Seven of the nine schools added JV programs last season as a first step toward building genuine programs, and Grover and Bennett will take that step next fall.

However, Thomas said there still will be a Thanksgiving Day game, likely involving the top two Buffalo schools to not reach the sectional semifinals.

The only goal in Fox Lane's 1-0 victory over Somers/North Salem in hockey Wednesday night was a weird one.

George Lodge scored in the second period by flipping the puck from Fox Lane's own blue line to facilitate a line change. But the puck took a bad hop and skipped past goalie Evan Tabachnick, who turned back the other 19 shots. Cody Williams made 27 saves to earn his first shutout of the season.

John Schiano, who has written about high school sports in western and central New York for more than 25 years, covers New York for MaxPreps. He may be reached at johnschianosports@gmail.com.