Farvens Ulysse spurs Malverne to Nassau Class B title
Malverne teammates celebrate after their 60-36 win over Carle Place in the Nassau Class B boys basketball championship at Hofstra's Mack Sports Complex on Wednesday. Credit: James Escher
Malverne staged an ambush on Wednesday night at Hofstra’s Mack Sports Complex. Two of them, actually.
The Mules put themselves on course for victory in less than four minutes by scoring the games first 15 points and set the outcome in stone with a 15-2 burst to start the second half as it scored a convincing 60-36 win over Carle Place for the Nassau Class B boys title.
No. 2 Malverne avenged a nine-point regular season loss to the No. 4 Frogs and earned their 23rd county championship and first since 2020.
“We tried to come out with firepower,” junior forward Kevin Estime said. “We wanted to get them early and keep our foot on their neck.”
“The seniors had a little talk . . . about this not being our last game,” senior Farvens Ulysse said. “We knew this couldn’t be our last one. We felt this was our championship to lose.”
Malverne (15-7) will play against Suffolk champion Southampton (19-4) next Wednesday for the Long Island Class B championship at 6 p.m. back at The Mack. The Mules will be seeking their 13th Long Island crown and first since 2010.
Ulysse scored 10 of his 21 points in the opening run on a pair of three-pointers, a putback and a pair of free throws. The Mules’ defense played up tight on the Frogs, forcing three early turnovers and never allowing Carle Place to get off an uncontested shot.
“[Malverne] is an aggressive team and . . . they got under our chins,” Carle Place coach John Cantwell said. “You can’t go down 15-0 to a team like that. . . . This game is not the story of our season.”
Ulysse had 15 rebounds to go with his 21 points, Chad Wesley had 13 points and Estime finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds for Malverne. Chris Zannino had 12 points and Ryan Li added eight for Carle Place (15-7). Malverne’s Sylvain Castin lead a group effort to hold down the Frogs’ Ryan Leary — who had 36 points in the regular season meeting — and limited him to six points.
“They shot the lights out on us the first time,” Ulysse said. “[That] couldn’t happen again.”
The Frogs threatened to get back into the game in the second quarter. Zannino sank a layup off a pass from Antonio D’Alessandro to get within 22-16 with 3:02 left in the half. Malachi Hudson, an eighth grader, turned a long offensive rebound into a three-pointer and Estime had a couple buckets on the interior to restore the margin to 29-18 at the break.
Wesley and Estime each had four points in the run to start the second half. When Wesley took a steal the length of the court for a layup, it was 44-20 with 2:13 left in the third quarter.
“At halftime they told us to start just like we did in the first half and that’s exactly what we did,” Estime said.
“We were never comfortable shooting the ball tonight,” Cantwell said. “Still I couldn’t be prouder of how our team played this season. The true identity of this team did not come out in this game.”
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.
