Boys basketball: A.J. Caparelli and Jaiden Newton bring Ossining back from the brink

OSSINING – Nailing down a 1,350 on the SAT. Finding a prom date. Getting into a college of choice.

None of those anxious high school experiences match the kind of breathless pressure A.J. Caparelli experienced on the free throw line Friday with less than a second to play.

“I was shaking,” he said. “I was nervous.”

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Ossining needed both free throws in order to force overtime against New Rochelle in a Section 1 Class AA opening-round game. The first attempt glanced off the rim but landed softly and fell. The second attempt snapped the net and inspired a brief moment of celebration.

“My heart rate went sky high on the first one, so I really had to get focused again on the second,” Caparelli added. “Then we all worked overtime to get this one.”

There was plenty of drama there, as well.

After falling into a six-point hole in the extra session, the Pride applied even more defensive pressure and responded with a 9-3 run over the final two-plus minutes. Isaiah Ahlers curled into the lane with the ball, dropping it off to Jaidan Newton at the rim for a bucket with 1.7 seconds on the clock to give Ossining a 64-63 win.

It's a memory that will not soon fade.

“Isaiah found me,” Newton said. “He’s got a great basketball IQ and he found me underneath. We locked eyes and he threw me the ball. It just kinda happened. The energy was there all game, we just needed to come together at the end.”

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What it means

Top-seeded Clarkstown South needs to be careful with this group in the quarterfinals next week. The Pride got huge plays from multiple sources – Kris Singh, Dom Bautista, Darien Blalock, Caparelli, Ahlers and Newton. Ossining wiped out a 50-42 deficit in the last five minutes of regulation, as well.

And the defense is downright sticky.

“We played them in the beginning of the year and had a nice lead, but we blew it at the end,” Caparelli said of the Vikings. “It’s all confidence now and we’re looking to ride that into the County Center, baby.”

Player of the game

Singh was quiet in the opening half, but his calm delivery netted a pair of 3s in the fourth quarter that fueled the Ossining comeback. He finished with 16 points and five rebounds.

By the numbers

No. 9 New Rochelle (9-12): Austin Luzzi was big in overtime and finished with 16 points. … Justin Cohen had 12 points. … Kasim Mirza added 11 points. … Zyon Lord had seven points.

 No. 8 Ossining (12-8): Blalock had 14 points. … Newton wound up with 13 points. … Bautista scored all 11 of his points in the second half. He also grabbed seven boards. … Ahlers contributed six points. … Caparelli also had a pair of timely free throws in overtime and finished with four points.

They said it

“We turned the ball over. We didn’t make free throws. We were ball-watching on defense,” New Rochelle coach Rasaun Young said. “It was quiet in the locker room. They know. It was the little things we talk about all the time. There wasn’t much to say.”

“It shows how much grit and determination these young men have played with all season,” Pride coach Mike Casey said. “They believe in each other. We’re just so proud of them. I don’t think it had anything to do with Xs and Os, it was who wanted it more. Credit to both teams. New Rochelle was so tough. It was about us digging in.”

Mike Dougherty covers basketball for The Journal News and lohud.com. He can be reached at mdougher@lohud.com or via Twitter @lohudhoopsmbd.