Brendan Martin, Anthony Caris and Collin Murphy carry Floral Park to Nassau A championship
Floral Park celebrates after defeating West Hempstead in the Nassau Class A boys basketball championship at Farmingdale State College on Saturday. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
It had been 20 years since Floral Park returned to the mountaintop of Nassau boys basketball.
On Saturday against West Hempstead, the Knights used a three-point barrage to ascend to the peak again.
Brendan Martin scored 21 points, Anthony Caris scored 19 and Collin Murphy scored 14 — all in the second half — to lead No. 1 Floral Park to an 80-70 win over third-seeded West Hempstead in the Nassau Class A championship game at Farmingdale State.
“I feel like I’ve been waiting for this moment since I came to Floral Park,” Caris said. “I always told Matt Kelly, the assistant coach, and [head coach Sean] Boyle that we were going to get a title, and we just always work hard.”
Floral Park (19-4) hit 12 threes en route to its first county title since 2005 and second in program history. Murphy hit four threes, Caris made three, Martin and Joseph Prestia each had two and Declan Lally made one.
“We do a ton of shooting contests and competitions in practice,” Boyle said. “They get after it. They’re competitive … We haven't had a team that could shoot like this, but these boys are special.”
Said Martin: “We work hard in practice getting a lot of shots up. So when big games come like this, we’re ready for it.”
Floral Park outscored West Hempstead (15-8), which was led by Isaiah Blunt’s 25 points, 27-8 in the second quarter.
Murphy scored 11 third-quarter points in a 2:22 span to help hold off the Rams’ surge. Floral Park led 61-55 after three quarters.
“I've never felt anything like that,” Murphy said. “That was probably the greatest quarter I've ever had in my life.”
Said Boyle: “He came in, he wasn’t fazed. For a 10th grader, that's remarkable.”
Evan Wilson hit a three to cut West Hempstead’s deficit to 64-60 with 5:42 left. But Caris’ three-point play and Martin’s layup made it 69-60 with 3:56 left. West Hempstead never came within seven after that.
About a 25-minute delay occurred in the first quarter after referee Joe Gaskin suffered a cardiac event. Gaskin was responsive while leaving the gym and is expected to recover.
Floral Park will play in the Long Island Class A championship at 4 p.m. on March 16 at Farmingdale State. It awaits the winner of Tuesday’s Suffolk Class A final between No. 1 Southampton and No. 2 Mount Sinai.
“Any challenge that they’ve had, they’ve answered the bell all year long,” Boyle said. “I think we’ve won 16 in a row. We started off 3-4 and now we’re 19-4, so I couldn't be more proud.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
