East Rockaway captures L.I. championship

Aidan O’Connor knew it was a long time since East Rockaway boys’ basketball hung a Long Island championship banner. In his final opportunity on Tuesday afternoon, the senior forward did something about it.

O’Connor poured in a game-high 26 points and junior point guard Franklin Infante added 20 to lead the Rocks to a 72-65 victory over Southold at Centereach High School for the program’s first L.I. Class C title since the 2011-12 campaign. O’Connor, who grabbed 12 rebounds, and Infante (10-for-12) also combined to hit 15 of 19 free throws. Nick Grathwohl paced Southold with 18 points.

“It feels awesome,” O’Connor said. “Our team last won Long Island eight years ago and it’s great to be hanging a banner on the wall. We came out hungry and started strong. They made a run in the second quarter but then we picked it back up after halftime.”

Many other Rocks contributed on the scoresheet and were instrumental in the weekslong preparation to face the First Settlers. Senior Kyle Barth had nine points, freshman Tyler Hyland hit threes in each of the first two quarters, and senior Joseph Acampora had four key points in the third when they started to pull away.

“We’ve done a lot of great work against man defenses all season and we were hoping that’s how they’d guard us,” East Rockaway head coach Paul Collins said. “We were ready for any situation and it was great to see our kids go out there and play so well as a team.”

The Rocks scored 10 of the first 11 points and opened a 17-7 lead after one quarter. “The run at the beginning gave us a big confidence boost,” said Infante, who had two baskets and two assists in the first eight minutes.

Southold chipped away in the second quarter after a baseline drive by Barth upped the margin to 12. The First Settlers scored the next 12 to tie it before an O’Connor dunk spurred East Rockaway to a 30-27 halftime lead.

The Rocks carried a double-digit lead (49-39) into the fourth and appeared to be pulling away with a 13-point cushion at the midway mark when the First Settlers mustered one last surge. Behind Nick DeNicola and Nick Carr, Southold crept within 64-59 with 1:24 remaining but fouled the wrong opponent in crunch time.

Infante went 5-for-6 from the line in the final 1:05 to seal it. “We had the Nassau B/C game against Malverne last week and a few scrimmages, but there’s nothing like this atmosphere,” he said. “We all trust each other and everyone did their jobs.”