Mount Sinai boys basketball team tops Floral Park, wins first Long Island Class A championship

The Mount Sinai history-makers were at it again.

The Mustangs won their first Long Island boys basketball championship after earning their first Suffolk title.

It wasn’t all just a Dom Pennzello show against Floral Park on Sunday at Farmingdale State, though. The senior standout scored 21 points, but he saw a lot of attention.

So with the fate of this Class A title game and Southeast Regional final hanging there for either side to claim, contributions came from all over for coach Ryan McNeely’s team. Mount Sinai survived a 36-point eruption by senior Anthony Caris and emerged with a 77-71 victory.

“It’s a family at the end of the day, and we got it done together,” Pennzello said. “Not just me.”

In the fourth quarter, Brock Kolsch scored nine of his 17 points, Pennzello added six and Brian Vales scored five of his 13 to go with 14 rebounds. Alex Campanelli scored all five of his points and Blake Kolsch, Brock’s brother, scored three of his 12 to go with 10 assists. Mount Sinai outscored Floral Park 28-26 in the quarter.

Now a “family” trip is coming to Binghamton for the state Class A final four.

“This is where the big boys play now,” McNeely said.

The Mustangs (22-2), who have won 10 straight, will play at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena against Section I champion Byram Hills.

“My goal was always to be county champ when we were little,” Brock Kolsch said. “It’s great that we’re able to come this far.”

This team did dream in the spring that it could get this far.

“They said something like, ‘We’re going to states,’ ” McNeely said. “And I kind of like giggle. I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, guys. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get to that point.’

“And in my head I was like, ‘Do these guys know how hard it is to get to states?’ ”

They worked for it, and they made it even after their 10-point third-quarter lead was cut to 52-50 with 7:15 left on Caris’ three-pointer. He scored 15 points in the fourth quarter.

“It was impressive,” Floral Park coach Sean Boyle said, “but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”

Pennzello countered with a floater in the lane. An 18-9 run was in motion.

Campanelli’s layup raised the advantage to 70-59 and Brock Kolsch converted a three-point play for a 73-62 lead with 1:39 to go.

The Knights (19-5), who earned their first Nassau title in 20 years, got no closer than five after that, and that was with 12.8 seconds remaining.

“I’m super-, super-proud of the season,” Boyle said, “but disappointed that we let a golden opportunity get away.”