Mount Sinai beats Amityville, reaches first Suffolk 'A' final
Drew Feinstein, right, and teammate Derrek Shechter of Mt. Sinai celebrate as the Mustangs close in on a 58-50 win over Amityville in the Suffolk Class A boys basketball semifinals at Longwood on Tuesday. Credit: James Escher
Mount Sinai has never ruled Suffolk in boys basketball.
In fact, it has never appeared in the county final.
That changes at 5 p.m. Saturday at Stony Brook.
The third-seeded Mustangs will get their chance to make program history and win the title. They finally reached the championship game. Derrek Shechter scored 20 points, Dominic Pennzello added 13 and Drew Feinstein contributed 12 points and 12 rebounds, helping them hold off No. 7 Amityville, 58-50, in their Class A semifinal Tuesday at Longwood.
So they will face No. 1-seeded Kings Park, a 41-37 winner over No. 4 Wyandanch.
“I feel like we didn’t come here just to get there,” Feinstein said. “We came here to win. We’ve got to take it home.”
This is a team that already took the program’s first league championship, winning among the schools with the smaller enrollments in Suffolk IV. But winning a county championship has been on their minds all along.
“That was our goal from the beginning,” coach Ryan McNeely said. “We had a really good offseason . . . We had so much experience back. We have five guys on the court at all times that can shoot and handle and pass, and that’s a great luxury for us.”
Mount Sinai (18-4) owned a 15-point lead with 5:41 left. But Amityville (14-9) trimmed it to five at 55-50 on a three by Seville Williams with about 44 seconds remaining. However, It wouldn't get any closer.
“They’ve been fighting all year,” Amityville coach Jack Agostino said. “We had to fight our way into the playoffs . . . I know we’re really good. Sometimes we fall a little short.”
The Mustangs led 22-15 at halftime and had a 10-point lead early in the third.
Christian Smiley helped power Amityville's comeback. The 6-4 forward scored seven of his 22 points in a 12-3 run that cut Mount Sinai's advantage to 28-27.
“We tried to stay focused, keep composed and don’t make any mistakes,” Shechter said.
They never turned over the lead. It helped that McNeely switched to a 2-3 zone. By the end of three, it was back up to 39-31.
Shechter made back-to-back threes early in the fourth. The lead climbed to 13. Pennzello followed with a fast-break layup to make it 51-36. And Mount Sinai ultimately finished it off.
Can the Mustangs finish off a county championship?
“We’re pretty confident,” McNeely said. “We have a very good team.”
