Floral Park boys basketball's Declan Lally, Brendan Martin key win over Plainedge
Brendan Martin of Floral Park works the ball around Jackson Bianchi of Planedge during a Nassau League VI boys basketball game in Floral Park on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
When the Knights from Floral Park walked off the court at Farmingdale State last March, the program owned something special for the first time in 20 years — a county championship.
Now Floral Park is back with four of the starters who helped make that happen in Nassau Class A, all of them seniors, and six players overall who were tested in postseason play. So Brendan Martin sees a similar basketball team to the previous one.
“But I think this year we have more experience and we know what it takes to win,” the senior guard said Wednesday night after they claimed a 71-40 home victory over an inexperienced Plainedge team.
Senior guard Declan Lally scored 17, Martin added 14 and junior forward Ryan Terwilliger contributed six points, 12 rebounds and three blocks.
So the Knights are 5-0, including 2-0 in Nassau VI.
“They’re playing to their advertisement,” coach Sean Boyle said. “They’re playing hard. They’re working hard in practice.”
The goal is to polish everything, especially defensively, and pursue a repeat.
“I think that the group that we have is talented,” Boyle said. “If we’re playing our best brand of basketball down the stretch, I think we have a shot just like a couple of other teams do.”
The Red Devils (0-6, 0-2) have five new starters. Junior guard Jackson Bianchi stood out with six threes and 22 points.
“We said at the beginning that this is a tough conference and there are a lot of good teams,” first-year coach Jared Bursky said, “but we feel if we progress as the season goes along, we want to put ourselves in a position to have a chance to compete for a playoff spot.”
Floral Park had a 25-12 advantage in the second quarter and a 38-20 cushion at halftime.
Lally had missed a few shots but hit a three late in the first quarter and scored 10 points in the final 4:17 of the second.
“I kept shooting when I was open,” Lally said, “and when they started going down, I helped the team out and everyone started coming together.”
Martin scored 10 in a 14-0 run to open the third. The margin expanded to 39 in the fourth.
“I just got off to a slow start in the first half,” Martin said, “but I just kept my mind right, came out in the third quarter, hit a couple of shots and just played hard.”
