Bay Shore boys basketball's Corey Faines, Niall Haughney key Long Island Class AAA championship win
Bay Shore wins the Long Island Class AAA boys basketball championship on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at Farmingdale State. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
Bay Shore senior Corey Faines didn’t attempt a single free throw before the final minute of the Long Island Class AAA championship against Baldwin. He hit two with around 40 seconds left and then found himself at the line, leading by two, with a pair of shots.
“I knew when it came down to it, I had to hit them,” Faines said. “.... If we don’t hit them down the stretch, you have to live with the consequences.”
Faines dealt with the consequences. He hit both, and seven seconds later it was all over.
Bay Shore defeated Baldwin, 66-62, at Farmingdale State Wednesday. The Marauders, who won their second Long Island championship in three years, will head to Yorktown High School Saturday at noon for the Southeast Regional High School to face Section I’s Mamaroneck.
Inside 30 seconds, Bay Shore senior Trey Blair grabbed a contested rebound. Soon, the ball found captain Niall Haughney, who was fouled and sent to the line. The senior said he often jokes to his friends that when he gets “an and-1, you know it’s just going to be two.”
“When I first got to the line, I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll make one today,’” Haughney said with a laugh. “If you look at boxscores from past games, I think I’ve been 0-for-4, 0-for-5 … I just kept going. I guess when you’re on, you’re on.”
Haughney knocked his ninth and 10th free throws, hitting all but one of his 11 attempts. With 16.3 seconds left, Baldwin junior Mical Saint Jean stole two Bay Shore inbounds passes and was fouled each time, hitting three of his four attempts to cut the lead to two.
Finally, the Marauders got the ball to Faines with seven seconds left, and the rest became history. Faines and Haughney combined to score 28 of Bay Shore’s 34 first-half points, finishing with 25 and 22 points, respectively. Blair had three blocks.
“I’m just so happy for them,” Bay Shore coach Gary Williams said. “Because they deserve it, they’ve been talking about it since the beginning of the year. There were tears in the locker room about the want to go back upstate. They willed us.”
Baldwin senior Jordan Williams scored 12 of the Bruins’ 21 third-quarter points to cut Bay Shore’s lead to just four heading into the fourth quarter. Saint Jean dominated throughout the contest, hitting five three-pointers and finishing with a game-high 28 points.
Baldwin coach Darius Burton was overcome with emotion when speaking on a senior class that helped the Bruins win their sixth consecutive county title.
“It’s been very special,” Burton said. “To do what they did, all the adversity they went through, no one believed in them. To be county champs, to win 16 in a row, I love them. They’re a special group.”
Burton and Williams both played for Gary Charles on the Long Island Panthers and were members of Newsday’s 1993 All-Long Island team. It was the first time they met as coaches for their alma mater during the season.
“I told everyone else, [Burton] is the blueprint for Long Island basketball excellence, period,” Williams said. “What he does is to be emulated, and that’s all we’re doing … in terms of playing all-year round and getting kids to buy into the system.”
Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.
