Dimaunt'e Gardner helps Deer Park boys basketball clinch Suffolk League VI title
Deer Park forward Dimaunt'e Gardner drives the baseline against Bellport in a Suffolk League IV game on Wednesday at Bellport. Credit: George A Faella
Deer Park has been among Long Island’s best boys basketball teams since the calendar turned to 2025.
The Falcons lost six of their first eight games, five during an arduous non-league schedule. Since then, it has been nothing but victories.
Deer Park stayed poised amid a 10-point late second-quarter deficit against Bellport on Wednesday, exchanging blows with the Clippers until it grabbed a two-point lead with 6:10 left and never surrendered it.
Senior forward Dimaunt’e Gardner scored 24 points and sophomore guard Nusanti Delbridge added 16 to lead Deer Park to a 60-54 road win and the outright Suffolk League IV title. It was the Falcons’ 11th straight win.
“I'm just so proud of the kids,” coach John McCaffrey said. “We were 1-5 in non-league and everybody wrote us off and nobody had anything positive to say about us. And we just kind of kept working and working . . . and now we’ve won 11 in a row in league.”
Deer Park (13-6, 12-1) secured its 10th league title since 2011, according to McCaffrey.
“The start of the year, it was rough,” Gardner said. “But Coach told me he got me, so I just believed in him. I believe in us. We work hard every day. We get at it. There’s days where we’re not our best, but Coach still believes in us. He trusts us. We trust him. I love my coach …
“We just got to repay him. This is how we repay him. It’s not over yet, though.”
Michael Frankie hit a free throw to give Bellport (13-6, 10-3), which was led by Jordan Battist’s 21 points, a 41-40 lead with 6:31 left. Delbridge’s three 21 seconds later gave Deer Park a 43-41 edge and the permanent lead.
Gardner’s three-point play extended Deer Park’s lead to 57-47 with 1:31 left. Bellport scored the next five points to cut it to 57-52 with 14.6 seconds left but never inched closer.
“(Gardner’s) an all-county player,” McCaffrey said. “He’s an All-Long Island player. In my opinion, he’s the best player in our league. In my 25 years of coaching, he’s the highest character human being I’ve ever been involved with. His motor is relentless. He just refuses to let us lose.”
Bellport led 26-16 with 1:52 left in the second quarter, but Deer Park ended the half on an 8-0 run. Deer Park trailed 34-29 with 2:27 left in the third quarter but rattled off an 11-3 run to end the period.
“In the beginning of the season, they didn’t believe in us,” said Falcons junior guard Damien Scott, who had nine points. “But now they do.”
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
