Malverne high school was able to pull away with a 77-59 win over Academy Charter at Farmingdale State College, Friday night, behind big performances by Deandre Blagrove and Jayden Serpahin with 18 points and 15 points respectively.
The first half was all Malverne, as they went up early in the game,12-4 ,just over four minutes into the first quarter. They capitalized off their strong physical presence inside, and were able to essentially get whatever shot they wanted at the rim. “ We came out on fire today knowing that we were going to take it to them ….we are going to play man, we are going to try and hold their best player to his averages and shut everybody else down, and I think we did that,” said associate head coach Walter Aksionoff.
The physical punishment down in the paint continued into the second quarter as Blagrove, Seraphin and Trey Robinson all grabbed offensive rebounds to keep their team’s offensive possessions alive for more second chance opportunities. Behind their stellar play Malverne was able to head into the intermission with a 38-23 halftime lead over Academy Charter. “ Up tempo game is our game, we like to play that, we have a little more creativity,” Aksinoff said
Then in the third quarter both teams made mini-runs with Malverne already matching their total in their last game of 47 points with 2:58 left in the third quarter. Academy Charter then caught fire, when star player Jarrett Dingle tried to put his team on his back, scoring in an array of ways such as from the foul line, mid-range and top of the key. His teammates soon followed his lead getting turnovers and running out into transition and finishing, to cut their deficit to just six points heading into the fourth quarter. Academy Charter outscored Malverne 25-16 in the period to get within striking distance with eight minutes left to decide the champions of class B.
That is as close as they got, as Malvenre opened up the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run to go up 64-48 with 5:46 left in the game. From their they got back the rhythm that they were playing with in the first half and cruised to a victory and celebrated with their trophies after the game at half-court in front of the crowd.
Dingle led Academy Charter with 23 points and was helped by John Tinch who added 13 points to the contest.
Malverne wins the season series between these two teams in their conference 2-1 and claim the championship for their school.
“ We just play, we just play, we know their good …we just wanted to limit their fouls and we know is we did that we would be A-OK,” Aksionoff said.
