Deer Park boys allow only two points in final 6:20 to defeat East Islip in Suffolk Class AA quarterfinal
Falcons’ Dimaunt’e Gardner (19 points) tries to get past an East Islip defender during Suffolk Class AA quarterfinal on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. Credit: Bob Giglione
Deer Park experienced all the emotions of playoff basketball in its Suffolk Class AA boys quarterfinal against East Islip on Wednesday.
The second-seeded Falcons’ 13-point early third-quarter advantage over No. 7 East Islip quickly turned into a one-point deficit entering the fourth quarter.
“I think it’s just like a mental thing with us,” sophomore guard Nusanti Delbridge said. “Every time we're down, we just stay calm. Because if we lose our focus, things go bad. But we didn’t. We stayed positive. The outcome of the game, it showed.”
Deer Park allowed only two points in the final 6:20 to close out a 59-47 home win over East Islip. Deer Park trailed 45-44 1:40 into the fourth quarter but ended the game with a 15-2 run.
Dimaunt’e Gardner scored 19 points, Drew Delargy and Delbridge each scored 11 and Damien Scott scored 10 for Deer Park (15-6), which won its 13th straight game. Delbridge had eight fourth-quarter points and Scott had five.
“I like the environment, it’s pretty tough, though,” said Gardner, a senior forward. “We just have to adjust. Once we adjust, we get what we have to get done, done. We just finish up where we started.”
Deer Park will face No. 3 Smithtown West in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Monday at Longwood. The Falcons have never won a county title, but coach John McCaffrey said that has not even been a conversation with this group.
“We started the season 1-5 in non-league,” McCaffrey said. “We played a heavy-hitter non-league schedule, and we struggled. So we’ve had this mantra the whole year: 1-0 today. Tomorrow we’re going to watch film and practice, and we got to have a good film day and a good practice day. We’ve never one time talked about anything other than the next day.”
Scott hit a fall-away two to give Deer Park a 46-45 lead, which it never surrendered, with 6:11 left. Delbridge’s jumper extended Deer Park’s lead to 54-45 with 1:31 left. Kenshin Brown answered with a layup 13 seconds later for East Islip (14-7), which did not score again.
John Talt had 13 points to lead East Islip.
Delargy hit a three to give Deer Park a 33-20 lead 21 seconds into the second half, but East Islip ended the quarter on a 21-7 stretch to grab a 41-40 lead.
“The two things we talked about was what team got more possessions and what team played with more poise,” McCaffrey said. “We lost our poise in the third quarter, but then in the fourth quarter, we did what we've been doing all year.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.