Mineola Basketball Falls to Roslyn in Quarterfinals

For the first minute of the Nassau Class A quarterfinal matchup between Mineola and Roslyn Tuesday night at Mineola High School, it looked like the Mustangs were on top their game.

Senior guards Mike Waszychuk and Brian Gaffney hit back-to-back three's giving the Mustangs a 6-2 advantage in the game.

But that was only the first minute.

During the remaining 31, Mineola’s hot shooting cooled off quicker than the outside temperature and Roslyn's size and experience took over.

The Bulldogs rode the back of big man Mark Gjonlekaj, who used his 6'6 frame to dominate the inside paint. The burly center pushed his weight around grabbing 15 rebounds and scoring 16 points, helping Roslyn to a double-digit 36-25 halftime lead.

The Mustangs were never able to cut into Roslyn's lead going into the second half and even trailed by 30 points at one point early in the fourth quarter. Waszychuk, who scored 22, was able to spark the crowd late in the game when he hit back-to-back three's and scored a layup and was fouled for an old-fashioned three-point play, but the Bulldogs ran out the clock for a dominating 72-54 win.

"They're a good shooting team and their big man is tough and talented," Mineola coach Jim Hegmann said. "They moved the ball nicely and they just had more horses than we did."

Mineola had switched to a 2-3 zone to prevent Roslyn from getting inside the paint which proved ineffective.

"They beat us inside on the boards and with outside shooting,” Heggman said. “They were just a better team all around than us tonight."

The defeat marks the second time in the past three years that the Mustangs have exited in the second round of the playoffs.

Roslyn will face South Side in the semi-finals on Feb. 27 at SUNY- Old Westbury.