North Shore's Vasilis Triantafyllou gets his 1,000th point

There were just two seconds left, and North Shore had the basketball to inbound and a home win in its hands Monday night against Lawrence. But everyone knew that Vasilis Triantafyllou sat at three points from 1,000 in his run of excellence for the Vikings.

Here’s the replay:

Pass. Catch. Shoot, from 22 feet away on the left wing. Descent through the net. Buzzer. Pandemonium.

That’s only part of a great story from the 71-56 victory.

Triantafyllou arrived at his gym averaging about 21 points per game. The 6-5 senior forward needed 40 to reach that coveted 1,000 mark. Surely he would need two shots at this.

He got all 40 in one shot!

And he wasn’t surprised.

“I believed I could get it in one game, to be honest,” Triantafyllou said. “I knew I was capable of it. I’d by lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about it because it’s Senior Night and there’s probably like no other perfect way to get a thousand points than on Senior Night.

“My teammates also knew as well, so they were more generous with the ball, passing it to me a little bit more, looking for me more.”

His friends were there tracking his progress and keeping the crowd updated. So the anticipation was building.

With seven seconds left, Triantafyllou attempted a corner three. The ball hit the rim and then a Lawrence player deflected it out of bounds.

One more chance.

Triantafyllou got free off two screens — 1,000, with about half a second to spare.

“It was actually nice. Not only did our crowd rush to congratulate him, but the Lawrence kids rushed to congratulate him as well,” said Ryan Berglin, North Shore’s third-year coach. “ . . . It was a wild way to end Senior Night.”

Triantafyllou has been a starter for his four varsity seasons, but he had only an eight-game schedule as a freshman thanks to the pandemic. He also missed two games because of a sprained ankle this season.

“The 40 thing is absolutely incredible,” Berglin said. “ . . . And then scoring a thousand, it’s the third time in North Shore history it’s ever happened. It’s something that you just don’t hear about often. But you have to be good at basketball for three legit years in order to accomplish that.”

The Vikings are having a terrific season. They are 16-3 overall and 10-1 in Nassau A-VII after Friday night’s 68-51 victory over Island Trees.

They showed up with four players averaging from eight to 11 points — senior forward Jack Molesky and senior guard Matt D’Aversa, and junior guards Damon Merazzi and Lucas Schimsky.

“I’d say a county championship with this team is very doable,” Triantafyllou said. “ . . . We like to play defense. We like to play for one another. We have good shooting this year. We’re a very good team.”

Bachman plans to stay

Wally Bachman reached an extra-large milestone with his 500th win as a varsity basketball coach when Jericho beat Valley Stream Central last month. Bachman, in his 44th season overall, including the first 13 at Valley Stream North, turns 75 next month.

But he isn’t ready to step away

“It’s in my DNA,” Bachman said. “I guess I’ve been born to coach. I love coaching. I still have the passion. I still have the hunger. I still have the desire to keep going on.

“For 36 years, I was a teacher at North. I’m retired now. And nothing gives me the pleasure every day of going into a gym and being involved with the Jericho program. I just enjoy it. I don’t plan on stopping at this point.”