Hills West Boys Basketball Heads to Finals With Victory Over Floyd

The Hills West boys basketball team secured its entry into the county finals on Tuesday night at Stony Brook University with a 69-62 victory against Floyd.

The Colts will now face West Babylon on Friday night for the championship at Stony Brook University.  The two teams played twice during the season, with each winning on its home court.

The first quarter saw a man-to-man defense on Hills West.  Floyd hit their first two 3-point shots to take a 6-2 lead at the 5:30 mark.  Offensive rebounding by Hills West's Emile Blackman brought them back into the lead 7-6 at the 4:00 mark.  Blackman continued his rebounding, and Sledge made his first dunk with a minute left to go.  Floyd had two steals, and Hills West's Tavon Sledge hit an impressive half-court shot as the clock ran out, going into the second quarter 18-18.

Going into the second quarter, Floyd made a 3-point shot, and took the lead at the 4:00 mark, 27-22.  Hills West came back with Anthony Rollino making a 3-point shot at the 1:00 mark.  While Floyd was still ahead, Hills West continued to gain momentum.  Blackman sunk a shot in the paint, giving Hills West a 32-31 lead.  However, Floyd made two foul shots, taking the lead 33-32 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Hills West and Floyd played even for the most part.  The score was tied 41-41 at the 4:00 mark, and neither team outplayed the other until the final 30 seconds.  Sledge drove to the basket for a 2-point shot, and Blackman stole the inbound pass.  While he missed the shot, Hills West's Chris Kaimis got the rebound, putting them up 50-45.  Now at a 5-point lead, they went into the final quarter.

Hills West came out with a man-to-man defense, and opened the lead to 8 points with a 3-pointer by Kaimis and Rollino.  With the score now 62-54, there was only 3:00 left to go.  Hills West maintained its lead, and started to slow the ball down.  

This forced Floyd to stop the clock by fouling Hills West.  Floyd made a 3-point shot with 27 seconds left, closing the gap to 66-62.  Sledge then took the ball to the basket, made a 3-point play, and secured their victory 69-62.  Sledge scored a team-high 23 points, followed closely by Blackman with 18 points.  The highest scoring player on Floyd made 16 points.

Hills West head coach Bill Mitaritonna, agreed that Floyd outplayed Hills West in the first half.  

"Floyd is a great team, and we really had to get our defense going, which is the staple of our program," he said. "We came out and showed that we wanted to play."  

Mitaritonna went on to compliment their upcoming opponent, West Babylon, "They have a lot of great shooters and confidence.  We're just going to do our best."  

He also expressed his happiness over the fact that two teams (Hills West and West Babylon) from the league IV division have made it to the county championship.

Emile Blackman shared his thoughts on their performance:  "Floyd is a good team, they gave us a big challenge tonight.  Anthony White is a great player, and we really needed to play Hills West defense to stop them.  Our coach pointed out that we're a sub-par first-half team, so the second half is what we had to focus on."