In one sense, last year was the end of an era for the Port Washington boys basketball team.
Four senior starters led the Vikings on an incredible ride that galvanized an entire town, as Port won the county title for the first time since 1947, added an LI championship and came within one win of the state crown.
It would be easy, and expected, for Port Washington to fall back to the pack this season. But the truth is, this year’s team had lots of seniors as well, elevated to key roles.
And as coach Sean Dooley pointed out, all those seniors knew was that Port always reached the county championship game.
It was the fourth straight time the Vikings played for the county championship, but Saturday night at Farmingdale State Port once again ran into Baldwin.
The teams were meeting for the third time in four years in the Class AAA title game, and each time the Bruins have just been a little too tough. This year’s battle was just like the other two, low-scoring and tight to the end, and once again Baldwin made just enough plays to pull it out, winning 47-40.
It was the sixth straight county title for the Baldwin dynasty (last season it dropped down to Class AA).
“This final (loss), I’m a little more at peace with than the other two,” Dooley said. “Because we weren’t nervous, we didn’t play poorly. We played well, we did what we wanted to do in the game plan. They had a kid come off the bench (Rian Gittens) and hit three 3’s, and that got them going.”
The Vikings (17-6) had reached the finals after a couple of very close playoff games, a six-point win over Uniondale, and then a 35-32 squeaker over Valley Stream Central in the semifinals.
But Saturday, Port Washington came out hot, stretching a three-point first quarter lead up to 13, 19-6, midway through the second.
But then Baldwin and Gittens got hot, and by halftime Baldwin (21-2) had spurted on an 18-2 run and led 24-21 at the break.
The Vikings, led by Billy Edelstein’s 15 points (all on 3-pointers) kept battling back, and were down just two, 39-37, with 3:51 left.
But Baldwin was too tough defensively down the stretch.
“We knew the game would be in the 40s, we were prepared for that and I thought defensively we did a really nice job for a while,” Dooley said. “We had some shots in the fourth quarter that didn’t go down, good looks that we got with good execution. They’re a great team, but we were right there with them, just like the last two times.”
Chase Kovar added 13 points for the Vikings, who will lose seven seniors from the squad that reached four straight county championship games.
“We got the maximum out of what we could, with each kid,” Dooley said. “We came up a little bit short this year, but I was so proud of the grit and togetherness. They were the true essence of a team, different guys stepped up on different nights.
“It was another great season with these great kids.”
