Kennedy Loses Playoff Birth to Syosset

Syosset guard Spencer Hazan said a person could have probably written 35 stories about his team's 60-57 win over Bellmore JFK Monday night.

He's right, but it's the final story that had Kennedy coach Rory Block giving an earful to an official at point-blank range all the way to the exits.

Those kinds of emotions are common when a playoff birth is on the line. The Braves will go on to represent Conference AA-III in the postseason, and Block will wonder what could have been - privately.

"I can't tell you what I really feel," Block said, although even the most passive of lip-readers in the bleachers had a good idea. "In my opinion, a great game wasn't decided by the 10 players on the court."

With 14.9 seconds left and Syosset clinging to a 58-57 lead, Kennedy's Joey Karo brought the ball up the court and drove the lane. His shot missed, and Syosset eventually got the ball after a scrum. The officials called an intentional foul on the Cougars with 6.5 seconds left, giving the Braves two shots plus the ball and sending the Cougar bench into histrionics.

Hazan hit one of the two free throws, then did the same off the inbound. That gave Kennedy the ball with 5.2 seconds left, down three. Karo again had the ball in his hands, and Hazan admitted he wrapped up Karo to try and prevent him from attempting a trey. Karo threw up the ball trying to get a three-shot trip to the line, but the officials called nothing. The ball flew out of bounds, and the Braves were awarded the ball with two-tenths of a second left, leading to Block's postgame chat with one referee.

Hazan added that he felt he easily made contact with Karo before the latter was in the act of shooting, even if a foul had been called. As for the play that produced the intentional foul, Syosset coach Bobby Kopp said, "[The officials] made the right call."

It was a rough finish for a game that wasn't as nearly as ugly. Karo (21 points) and Hazan (29) turned a match-up for a conference crown into a  personal game of HORSE. Karo's barrage in the second quarter had the vocal Kennedy minority in the Syosset bleachers chanting, "You can't stop him!" But Hazan (game-high 29) nailed a three-pointer to cut Syosset's halftime deficit to 33-24. It was a sign of things to come, as Hazan drilled five more in the third quarter, including an off-balanced fall-away from the top of the key with Kennedy's Andrew Kruter squarely in his face that had everybody shaking their heads.

Kennedy got four straight free throws from Brendan Mills to cut a 58-53 deficit to a single point prior to the wild finish.

"Our defense let us down in the third quarter, but like our guys have done all year, they fought back and made it a game at the end," Block said.

Kennedy: 16 17 11 13 - 57

Syosset:  16  8  27  9 - 60

Kennedy: Joey Karo 21, Brendan Mills 10, Andrew Kruter 8, Eugene Ciniglio 6, Steven Katz 4, Will Colon 4, Brian O'Gorman 4.

Syosset: Spencer Hazen 29, Matt Quinn 16, Eric Schwarz 7, Matt Cohen 5, Brett Schwarz 3.