Amityville boys basketball gives coach Jack Agostino a win in his final home game

The games are winding down for Jack Agostino as the esteemed head coach of the Amityville boys basketball team. The transition to his likely successor was right there to see throughout Wednesday’s Suffolk Class A quarterfinal: Agostino sitting and A.J. Price standing.

It has been the bench arrangement since early January. Price, the assistant coach who starred for Agostino at Amityville and went on to play in the NBA, is out front during the action.

“We’ve been making this transition and I know it’s working,” said Agostino, who’s in his 31st season spread over two stints and plans to become Price’s assistant next season. “… He has an unbelievable way to connect to the kids. I do, too. But we play our roles. It’s really like two head coaches.”

“I’m still the head coach,” he added. “Just I don’t stand up.”

Agostino’s reign will last at least one more game. Five double-figure scorers — Amir Dickerson (15), Cam Alford (14), Allan Dodson-Isabell (13), Jordan Hines (11) and Wes Flythe (10) — powered the fourth-seeded Tide’s 65-53 win over No. 5 Center Moriches in Agostino’s final home game as the head coach.

So it’s on to the semifinals next Wednesday at No. 1 Mount Sinai, which beat Amityville twice in the regular season.

The Tide claimed the county’s AA crown last year. Giving Agostino another championship is on their minds.

“With all our heart, we want to get him to where he wants to be at,” Alford said. “Last run.”

Alford nailed four threes. The junior shooting guard’s confidence has been rising.

“Working with A.J. Price, great shooter himself, played in ‘the league,’ workouts with him, late nights with him,” Alford said. “My jump shot has gotten way better.”

Amityville (10-8) let a 16-point lead late in the second quarter shrink to 33-28 early in the third.

Dickerson responded with a three-point play. A’Mauri Whitty drove to cut it to six, but Hines drilled a three and Flythe hit two free throws to put the Tide ahead 41-30.

After Dickerson’s layup made it 50-37 with 5:51 left, the Red Devils trimmed it to eight four times but came no closer.

The determined Tide didn’t want a replay of their regular-season finale. They blew a big lead at Wyandanch and lost.

“So we knew that couldn’t happen again because it’s playoffs,” Dickerson said.

Center Moriches (14-7), which received 14 points from Anthony Huff, 13 from Whitty and 12 from Jordan Williams, is the smallest A school. It will drop to B next season.

“Just experience,” coach Freddy DelGiorno said of the difference in this game. “They were county champions last year and they’re home. In the end, those things are huge . . . But I’m proud of the guys. We gave it a shot.”