Nourmand forces OT, then Wheatley wins it

The bank was open.

As it turns out, though, Saturday was nothing short of a holiday for Wheatley boys basketball. In fact, to hear Andre Nourmand tell it, his off-balanced, buzzer-beating bank shot from the far left corner to tie the game at 36 and send Wheatley into overtime against No. 2 Locust Valley was pretty close to a miracle. It was his first trey of the year and no, he didn't mean to bank it.

The forward cashed in three more points in overtime - a layup and a free throw - to help No. 3 Wheatley win, 45-38, in the Class B semifinal at C.W. Post. Christian Hyon's floater 30 seconds into overtime gave the Wildcats the lead for good, but it was that buzzer shot that caused all the buzz.

"I don't know how I made that," Nourmand said. "After, I felt like I was in the air for like two minutes." And how about watching the ball do its season-deciding dance against the plaxiglass? "The ball was in the air for longer."

Wheatley (9-9), which had lost both regular-season games to the Falcons, trailed 8-3 at the end of the first quarter before taking its first lead at 17-15 on Nourmand's putback with 41 seconds left in the first half. The Falcons were outscored 14-7 in the second quarter, but Alex Rawa's three-point play with 1:36 left to play tied it at 33 for Locust Valley. The Falcons (11-7) hit three free throws in the final 48 seconds to take the lead.

The Wildcats' box-and-one mostly contained Rawa, Locust Valley's lead scorer, who still managed to put up 13. Nourmand led all scorers with 19 points, and also had seven rebounds. Wheatley's Bryan Wilson chipped in eight rebounds.

"We talked before the game about this," Wheatley coach Jim Curcio said. "Just get it to the last three minutes, and that's what we did."

Down by three with 7.8 seconds left, Curcio called his "half court, last second, buzzer-beater play." It was designed to have two of the team's strongest shooters on the perimeter - one on each corner. Chris Gould was tied up on the left side; Nourmand, the post player who had not made a three-point shot this season - wasn't.

"I was wide open," Nourmand said. "I faked and dribbled once, then the fade away. I got lucky. I banked it."

At that point, there was nothing left to do but acknowledge a great shot in a tight spot, Locust Valley coach Tim Lomot said. "If a kid makes a shot like that, you just . . . tip your hat to him," he said. "Does he make that shot all the time? Probably not. Sometimes, it just comes down to the crazy shots."

The shot was unlikely, but, according to Curcio, that's just the type of player Nourmand is.

"I didn't believe it - the way it went across the backboard," Curcio said: "But that's the way this kid's been playing all year."

You can bank on it.