Locust Valley boys basketball's Francesco Allocca returns to court months after suffering cardiac arrest

Christian Ciccone sent the opening tip to Kyle Demosthene, who quickly fed Francesco Allocca for a layup — the easiest and the last two points of the Locust Valley senior’s basketball life.

The clock hadn’t started yet Thursday for the Falcons’ season finale on senior night. The Friends Academy defenders just watched. This was a prearranged moment, a touching idea devised by Allocca’s coach, Andrew Siegel, that also included a matching uncontested layup for the Quakers that tied it.

Allocca hugged his fellow starters and Siegel, and No. 23 in white exited his first game of the season and the final game he will ever play. The loud sound of applause and cheers filled the air.

The 6-5 forward from Bayville had experienced his scariest moment and his biggest win in this same gym in November. He survived after going into cardiac arrest on the first night of team tryouts.

Now he had scored.

“It was amazing to go out on the court one last time and be able to do that,” Allocca said at halftime of what became a 57-29 Falcons loss, capping a 4-16 season. “It was very emotional. I’ve played my whole life, so a lot of memories playing the sport.”

He can’t overly exert himself anymore. He would be at risk of another attack.

So he’s just 18 and he no longer can play competitive basketball, the game that likely was going to take him to the D-III ranks.

“He has all the right attitude now,” said his mom, Pia Allocca. “He was very sad before. But the way he coped with what happened was just to continue to come to practice, be supportive of the younger kids, continue with his leadership. Everyone looks up to him.

“So today for him is an important moment. He’s a little sad, of course, because he cannot play anymore. But he feels part of the team. For basketball, he was never about himself . . .  He’s a very mature kid in that sense.”

His standout junior season came with averages of 17.1 points and 9.2 rebounds along with 40 three-pointers. But life changed about five minutes into drills on Nov. 17.

He collapsed.

“I kind of turned him over and quickly realized it wasn’t just like him fainting or anything,” Siegel said.

While Siegel ran to call 911, assistants Andrew Bock, Ben Martinez and Brian LoRusso stayed with Allocca, doing CPR and using an automated external defibrillator.

Siegel spent time with Allocca’s shaken teammates, but he also kept returning to the gym.

“I’d see my assistant and he’d kind of keep shaking his head no, like saying he’s still not here,” Siegel said. “Yeah, I was worried. Very worried.”

When paramedics arrived, Allocca wasn’t breathing. He had no pulse. But before he left via an ambulance, he had come back to life.

He spent a week at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, then had an internal defibrillator implanted in December.

Pia Allocca said  Francesco was found to have ARVC — arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy — a genetic heart disease passed down from his dad, Paul Allocca, who died of cancer two years ago.

She said when Francesco exercised, some fat was “accumulating” in that right ventricle. His two brothers now have been found to have it, too.

Francesco said he feels ''fine.” He plans to study business in college and maybe get into coaching someday.

“It’s very tough,” he said about not being able to play, “but there are other things that I can do.”

The experience changed his perspective. How could it not?

As he put it: “It’s definitely telling me to be more appreciative of the small things in life.”