What looked like an easy win for the boys basketball team turned out to be anything but.
The Jets (11-5, 8-3) saw themselves open up a 23-point lead on Friday night, but Hicksville (5-12, 3-9) roared back against East Meadow's second unit and nearly picked up the win. After trimming the lead to six, Hicksville was finally stopped, and the Jets were able to send the crowd home happy on senior night at East Meadow High School with a 70-62 victory.
"I wish we would have played as well in the fourth quarter as we did in the first three," Coach Barry Dickson said. "We were terrible in that fourth quarter, but overall, we have been playing great lately."
East Meadow got off to a fast start Friday, and that was thanks in large part to Rob Franzese and Jeff Angelino. Hicksville really had no answer for the two big men, so East Meadow continued to feature them.
"It's nice when you have guys that can dominate down low like that," Dickson said. "They helped us get out to a big lead."
The Jets would need every point of the cushion, because after ending the third quarter with a 58-35 lead, Hicksville was the one turning on the jets.
Hicksville's Matthew Danns and TJ McAlese, who each had nine points apiece on the evening, hit a couple of timely threes to bring their team back in it, and before you knew it, the Jets lead was 65-59.
"It forced me to put the starters back in the game," Dickson said. "We couldn't let this one get away from us."
Nick Slevin hit a couple of big free throws, and Angelino added a lay-up to lock the game up for the Jets.
Franzese had a beastly night for the Jets, as he tallied 23 points and 11 rebounds in the winning effort. Angelino added 16 and Kyle Berger contributed 11 to the winning cause. Michael Levko led Hicksville with 11 points on the night.
East Meadow will play it's final game of the regular season on Monday at 6:15 p.m. at MacArthur High School.
