MVP Amari Desir leads Long Island Lutheran regional past Stony Brook in overtime for PSAA championship

Derick Reynolds Jr. drove the left baseline and fed the ball to Amari Desir for the game-winning, buzzer-beating, overtime-ending layup — a short shot that came under an extra-large shadow.

Long Island Lutheran’s elite boys basketball team is a national power. But there’s also a Long Island Lutheran Regional team.

“It’s very unfortunate because we’re playing in that shadow,” Desir said.

But the junior point guard/wing’s regional team emerged Friday to make a name for itself at The Stony Brook School.

The second-seeded Crusaders rallied from nine points down early in the fourth to force OT on Jordan Rabinovich’s last-second three. Desir then scored six of his 27 points in the extra session and claimed the MVP trophy, and LuHi took the PSAA championship game 71-70 after losing twice to the No. 1 Bears in the regular season.

“It’s my third year here and we’ve been building a culture,” Crusaders coach Nikko Callender said. “A lot of people still don’t know about our program regionally. So they think ‘LuHi B’ when it’s not a ‘LuHi B.’ We’re a LuHi varsity team.

“So winning like this means a lot because it puts us on the map and let’s people know that we’re for real. … This is the first (title) for our legit regional team.”

Callender is now hoping for a home game for his 13-7 team to start the NYSAIS tournament.

Bears coach Ron White credited LuHi for playing “a really strong game.” Now he’s hoping his 17-6 team receives a state tournament bid after hurting itself by missing five free throws in the final minute of regulation and four more in OT.

“We would’ve loved to have this one,” White said. “We had it in the bag.”

They led 70-67 after two free throws by Michael Favaloro with 43.3 seconds left in OT. But two free throws by Stavros Kapsalis cut it to one. Then came a turnover by the Bears, two missed free throws by LuHi and two missed free throws by the Bears.

That led to the Reynolds-to-Desir connection.

“I can’t thank him enough,” Desir said. “He won that game for me.”

The Stony Brook School went up 51-42 with 6:28 left in the fourth after James Augustine flew in for a dunk, two of his 24 points, which went with 10 rebounds.

But LuHi rallied and tied it when Desir, at Callender’s urging, fed Rabinovich, and the junior guard/forward banked in his big three.

“Honestly, (it was) all defense,” Rabinovich said. “That shot was just a shot. Defense wins championships.”

Callender isn’t satisfied with one. He said he wants to grow this so that “not only is the national team a powerhouse but the regional team is a powerhouse as well.”