Vikings Fall Despite Gritty Effort

The scoreboard didn't tell the whole story.

Hempstead topped visiting Port Washington, 71-51, in a Nassau Conference AA-I boys basketball game on Friday afternoon, but the margin wasn't indicative of the performance of the Vikings in their eighth consecutive defeat.

"It doesn't feel like a 20-point loss," Port Washington coach Sean Dooley said. "I'm proud of the way we played. Hempstead was hot from the outside, and those threes add up quick."

Hempstead hit nine shots from behind the arc and had three players score in double digits, led by Ismael Pierre's 19 points. Marquis Posey added 18 and David Gray had 12. Senior guard Adam Epstein poured in a game-high 20 for the Vikings (3-11 overall), who were without the services of senior starters Dan Bernstein and Jason Desimone due to a violation of team rules.

"Adam had the best game I've seen him play," Dooley said of Epstein, who has led the team in scoring in three straight games. "Considering what we needed from him today to be competitive, he gave us that and more."

Five of Epstein's points came from the foul line — two courtesy of a technical foul on one of Hempstead's assistant coaches — with 1.2 seconds remaining in the first half which allowed the Vikings to get within 34-26 at intermission, despite a 15-point second-quarter spurt for the Tigers.

After senior Ethan Sander (nine points) nailed a trey to give Port Washington a 16-15 lead early in the second, Hempstead caught fire. The Tigers hit six of their next seven shots, including long threes by Pierre and Gray (two), taking advantage of what the defense gave them.

"We generally play man defense, but we went zone with the personnel we had today and they hurt us," Dooley said.

Hempstead extended its lead in the third quarter behind Posey, who was lights-out from everywhere in the second half. He nailed four treys in the third and one traditional field goal that fittingly beat the buzzer to give it a 59-37 cushion heading into the fourth.

The Vikings, who received quality minutes from senior Harrison Remler and junior KC Ozcayir (nine points) and sparks off the bench from juniors Michael Murphy, Jae Yoo and Paul Tasnady, outscored Hempstead 14-12 in the final quarter.

"I liked the effort," Dooley said.

Three regular-season games remain for Port Washington, which hosts first-place Uniondale on Tuesday at 6:15 p.m. The Knights ran away with the first meeting, 58-34, on Jan. 8.