Matt DeFalco, Corey Sommervil key third-quarter comeback for Holy Trinity
Malachi Cooper of Holy Trinity looks to pass during a Nassau-Suffolk CHSAA boys basketball game against St. Mary's at Holy Trinity on Friday. Credit: James Escher
There’s typically some type of pressure in any NSCHSAA game, but on Friday night the Holy Trinity boys basketball team felt it a bit more.
Prior to hosting St. Mary's, Holy Trinity held a ceremony to retire Matt Doherty’s No. 30. And it was on the Titans not to spoil the celebratory mood.
Holy Trinity overcame a seven-point third-quarter deficit by scoring 14 points in the last 5:22 of the quarter, and then relied on its defense in the fourth to hold off St. Mary's for a 44-41 victory.
“We might have been trying to impress [Doherty] at the beginning,” senior Matt DeFalco said. “Finally we calmed down and got to playing tough defense to get through it.”
“We play hard and we try hard, and sometimes we try too hard and things don’t go like we want them to,” Titans coach Joe Conefry said. “We had good possessions and took good shots and they weren’t falling. Then they [St. Mary's] tried to do different things and we had bad possessions.”
Corey Sommervil scored five of his 15 points and DeFalco had five of his 12 in the third quarter when the Titans (12-10, 7-3) rallied from a 29-22 deficit to take a 36-32 lead.
Over the final 2:30 and six St. Mary’s possessions, Holy Trinity held the Gaels (5-14, 1-8) to one basket.
“We weren’t shooting well and it was going to be a fight, so we tried to embrace the fight and win with defense,” Conefry said.
DeFalco, who is the only returner from Holy Trinity’s 2022 NSCHSAA championship team, is surrounded by juniors.
“I'm now saying to them the things seniors said to me last season,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of chemistry at first, but it’s starting to click in. We might be playing our best basketball of the season by finding different ways to win.”
“We felt a weight on our shoulders at first to defend the title,” Sommervil said. “At this point we’ve learned to handle it.”
The Gaels closed the first half with a 10-0 run for a 27-22 lead.
Aaron Durant (13 points) made a 15-foot jumper with 6:41 left in the third to put St. Mary's ahead 29-22. Holy Trinity responded with 10 unanswered points, and took a 30-29 lead on two free throws by Matthew White with 2:31 left in the quarter.
Durant’s layup with 55 seconds left in the game made it a one-possession game, but the Gaels last two possessions ended with a turnover and a missed three-pointer.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
