But the Tigers never panicked. They did what the have been doing all year – look for the open man on offense, play smart and hard on the defensive end and pound the glass. This is the reason their record is now 19-2 after their 62-54 win over Copiague and head into the Suffolk County Final Four on Saturday against Smithtown West.

“We executed our defensive game plan really, really well and we continue to get key contributions from our bench,” said Head Basketball Coach Andrew D’Eloia. “One of the greatest attributes of our team is a deep bench and I think that we had the advantage of having fresher legs down the stretch.”

Two of those fresh legs belong to junior Power Forward Jon Alfiero who is quite simply a defensive brick wall. He had six rebounds in 14 minutes, and none was bigger than the one he grabbed in traffic with 37 seconds left and the Tigers clinging to a 3 point lead. Brendan Carr, who missed his first four field goal attempts but got hot in the second half, led the Tigers with 18, including 12 from behind the arc. He was also on the receiving end of a perfect backdoor bounce pass from F Dylan McNaughton that tied the score on Northport’s first possession of the 4th quarter. Carr’s bucket started a 20-10 Tiger run to end the game.

“Brendan is such a skilled basketball player,” said D’Eloia. “He made that key cut to get behind his man to tie the game and on two different occasions hit three-pointers at crunch time. He has really elevated his play.”

“We really executed well in the 4th quarter and finished really well,” said Carr. “We knew what this game meant, and we have guys up and down the bench that can contribute in a lot of different ways, and I think that’s why we had that edge at the end of the game.”

With 2:43 remaining and Northport down by one, Owen Zimmerman created a hustle foul when he got his hands in the passing lane and Kee made contact with him as they both dove for the ball near the corner boundary. Zimmerman, along with Alfiero and Andrew Miller were in D’Eloia’s revolving door of defensive substitutions that the coach spun on a possession-by-possession basis at the end of the game.

“I pride myself on playing good defense, boxing out and doing the little things,” said the junior Alfiero. “We were in a 2-3 zone defense and I was able to grab some boards and help us win, so I was pretty happy about that.”

Senior guard J.J. Ahlstrand came out of the gate blazing, scoring 8 of his 17 points in the first quarter. All of these came on Ahlstrand’s signature right-handed slash to the tin that leaves his defender stuck to the floor as if he had gum on the bottom of his sneakers. Blink for a nano-second and Ahlstrand has not only blown past his man for a layup, but he is already playing defense and looking for a steal.

“J.J. was taking what the defense was giving him,” said D’Eloia. “It was obvious that they were trying to take away (Nick) Watts and Carr early and that opened up some seams for J.J. and he did exactly what he was supposed to do and made some big plays early on.”

Despite Ahlstrand’s first quarter explosion, Copiague led 14-13 as Kee, who led all scorers with 27 and backcourt mate Malachi Moore scored eight points combined to close out the stanza.

“Malachi Moore and Rashad Kee are both 20 point scorers and they are both dynamic basketball players,” said D’Eloia. “When you go up against two guys like that it really puts a lot of pressure on your defense, but we had a good game plan and we had to grind it out. Copiague is a very good basketball team and once you get to the quarter finals, seeds mean nothing. Anything can happen on any given night.”

Tiger big man Nick Watts, who played 29 minutes, was his usual impactful presence with 14 points, 15 rebounds, 4 blocks and many shots altered. He also had a monster slam dunk when he sprung loose on the baseline in the second quarter, much to the delight of the Northport partisan crowd.

“Getting that dunk was great because it really got the crowd going,” said Watts. “I think it brought back the energy to our team.”

Watts’s dunk sparked a 14-6 run to end the half that enabled the Tigers to enjoy a one point lead at the break.

But the second half saw the lead change hands on six different occasions, the last of which came when point guard Emmett Radziul alertly saw Watts alone underneath on an inbound pass for an easy score. This gave the Tigers a 56-54 lead with just over 2:00 left to play.  The Eagles would not score again as Northport salted away the game at the line hitting 9 of 13 free throws in the 4th quarter.

It is the seventh time in the last 10 years that the Northport Boys Basketball program has reached the semi-finals of the Suffolk County Championship. They won the whole thing last year when they beat Ward Melville and Brentwood to end the year. Next up is Smithtown West with Brentwood looming but the Tigers are taking it one step at a time.

“Smithtown West is great team and they have a big man, a junior named Pat Burke, who I’ve trained with in the off season,” said Watts. “It should be a pretty good battle in the paint.”

Burke scored 26 points against Bellport in the quarters to set up this matchup. The two teams will meet at Eastport South Manor High School on Feb 26. Brentwood plays Hills East in the other semi-final game.