Cardozo Snips Wings; Wins SNY Invitl Chip

NEW YORK, NY - Sometimes other people may believe in a player more than the player believes in himself. Sometimes a player needs to know that his teammates have confidence in him before he has confidence in himself. Not going to such extremes, but Cardozo junior guard Rashond Salnave was having such a bad shooting night, his teammates had to tell him they believed in him. When it came down to the end and the situation became critical, Salnave came through for Cardozo.

The junior guard started a game clinching 12 point run to close out the game and give the Judges a 50-47 win in Saturday's SNY Invitational championship .

Wings senior center Jessie Govan made a jump hook from the left block and put Wings on top 47-38 with 2:50 left. Things looked bleak, but somehow Cardozo found a way to get back into the game. After not hitting practically anything all night, Salnave came alive at the most critical moment. A steal and a lay-up by Salnave started things rolling for the Judges.

Salnave had literally not made a field goal since the first half, but he made his second in a row when he swished a three from the right corner to cut Wings lead down to four points. Aaron Walker, another player who hadn't made a three all afternoon, finally saw his shot go through the net on the next possession.

The surge wasn't finished. After another missed shot by Wings, who were all out of timeouts and couldn't stop the action, Cardozo relentlessly pushed the ball up the floor. The end result was Salnave finding Tareq Coburn (10 points) in the same right corner he had drained a triple from less than a minute earlier. You looked up at the scoreboard and the score was 49-47, but with new leaders. Eventually the clock ran out and Cardozo had pulled off the improbable comeback, and taking home the 2015 SNY Invitational title.

To Salnave, it was a great feeling to get the win, and it also meant more to him and his teammates because it was more like a rivalry game than anything else.

"We just want to win, not matter what. We going to give it our all, we got to win. We don't want to lose to them no more," Salnave said. The team basically snatched a win out of the jaws of defeat.

Walker, who was only 1 for 6 from three point range, finished with a team high 17 points. He did most of his damage from the free throw line, going 8 of 11 in the game. Senior Elijah McNeely also hit double figures and finished with 12 points.

On the other side of the equation, Wings had to deal with the disappointment of giving up the last 12 points of the game and losing. Senior guard Desure Buie played a great game, scoring a game high 19 points and shooting 50% from behind the arc. But it wasn't enough to help his team on this day.

Wings had controlled the game almost entirely until the Cardozo run started. But Wings coach Billy Turnage said he used a timeout when he shouldn't have and it ended up costing his team. He was watching Cardozo hit shot after shot and their momentum swell just like everybody else. But with no timeouts, all he could do was watch.

"I blew it," Turnage said after the game when asked what he thought about his team losing the lead the way they did. "Kids will make mistakes, but as a coach I pride myself on managing the game, and I blew the game down the stretch."

Govan, the 6-11 Georgetown bound big man, finished with a modest double-double. Govan had 11 points and 11 boards for Wings.