A.J. Esposito's double-double helps Sachem East beat Sachem North
A.J. Esposito of Sachem East shoots just past the third-period buzzer during a Suffolk boys = basketball game against Sachem North on Wednesday. Credit: Dawn McCormick
The stakes don’t get much bigger than they were for the Sachem East boys basketball team on Wednesday evening. Its final regular season game was at home against rival Sachem North and the season was on the line: avenge a 16-point late December loss and slip into the playoffs or see a season that began with five straight wins come to a screeching halt.
East coach John Finta looked into the faces of his team before tip-off and said “I saw intensity in their eyes staring back at me.” Then those players went out and completely dominated North for a postseason-clinching 51-34 victory.
“It was a playoff feel in that game,” senior swingman Nick Kozlowski said. “That’s the team you want to play with the playoffs on the line. We’ve been playing with and against them since middle school.”
East’s 6-6 senior center A.J. Esposito stood above everyone in this one, both literally and figuratively. He turned in a herculean 20-point, 18-rebound performance that paved the way.
“Totally expected,” Kozlowski said of Esposito’s effort. “He does the same thing every day. He comes to school, he goes to math class and he drops 20 and 20.”
“We had our hands full and no answers today for [Esposito],” North coach Tommy Mullee said. “Losing like this hurts, but you have to feel happy the other guys [in town].”
The 6-4 Kozlowski was accurate on jumpers inside and beyond the three-point arc to total 15 points. And East (11-9, 8-8) turned in a stellar ensemble performance in its various zone defenses to completely stifle a North squad that was averaging 64 points per game. North’s leading scorer Chris Lally was held to five points and three-point ace Connor Volz, whose 60 treys ranks him among the county leaders, didn’t make one for the first time this season.
“We didn’t want Volz to get off a clean three and we wanted to play [at] this pace,” Finta said. “They did a great job.”
“We made them uncomfortable shooting, made them take shots they didn’t really want to take,” Esposito said. “It took all of us playing that defense to get this victory.”
East led 18-17 at halftime and broke the game open in the third as Esposito and Kozlowski each had seven points as it outscored North 19-4 in the quarter. Andrew Eaton led North (14-6, 11-5) with 14 points.
East arrived at the game having lost four of five to end up in the must-win situation. Still it brought out the best in the players and asked about the postseason, Esposito replied “We know how good we’re capable of playing.”
As for North, which had won seven of eight, Mullee said “it might have been our worst shooting game of the season — I’m glad we got it out of the way now.”
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.
