Conrad McRae Semifinal Recaps

BROOKLYN, NY -It was a long day at the Conrad McRae Youth League on Saturday with the quarterfinals and semifinals being played to determine who would be the two teams left to compete in the Championship Game on Sunday.

When it all played out what we are now left with is a true David vs. Goliath matchup for the title tilt as it will be the upstart PSAL Class "A" Division team Brooklyn Law & Tech taking on The Patrick School, one of New Jersey's best and a true national power in what will surely be a very entertaining contest.

The quarterfinals started off on Saturday with The Patrick School needing OT to take down the defending PSAL Champions in Thomas Jefferson 52-48. Abraham Lincoln were able to then knock off South Shore in a battle of Brooklyn "AA" school in the second quarterfinal of the day 68-47. Wings Academy fought back from an early double digit deficit to down Bishop Loughlin 72-60 in quarterfinal number three. Then in the final quarterfinal it was Brooklyn Law and Tech surprising Staten Island power Curtis 64-57 to take the final semifinal spot.

So the semifinals were set with Lincoln facing off with The Patrick School in the first semifinal, and that would be followed by Wings taking on Brooklyn Law and Tech, and both proved to be excellent and competitive games that had highs and lows for each of the teams competing.

It was a great day of action for sure and with NYCHoops.net in attendance lets now take a look back as we recap the semifinal action from Dean Street in Brooklyn.

In a game that saw a lot of chirping between Railsplitters head coach Dwayne "Tiny" Morton and Celtics head man Mike Rice, it was The Patrick School that took command down the stretch behind the play of guards Marcus McClary '17 and Jamir Harris '17 to down Lincoln by 4.

Playing with the services of Nick Richards '17 who was not in attendance due to an illness, The Celtics still were able to take control early on by dumping the ball in the paint to 7'0" big man Valdir Manuel '18 as he was able to get position in the paint and finish with authority as he scored on 3 straight trips down the floor to eventually give The Patrick School an 18-10 lead.

While Lincoln was struggling from the outside settling for perimeter shots for the most part, it was Donald Flores '17 who was keeping the Railsplitters from falling even further behind. He cut to the rim and finished off a nice feed from Kclejuan Brown '17 on one possession, came back on the next and was able to finish on a 2 on 1 break, and then knocked down a wing three the next time down the floor to make it just a 2-point game once again.

The Lincoln run was broken up by a put back inside by another 7-footer in Buay Koka '17 for TPS and while it looked as if the lead for the Celtics could be 7 or 8 at the half, Brown would connect on a big three at the halftime buzzer to cut it to just a 24-20 lead for The Patrick School at the break.

Off a strong start to the second half by Lincoln, the Railsplitters took back the lead at 30-28 off a strong take down the lane and the foul by Michael Reid '17. It was Lincoln' first lead since the opening moments of the game and with the game moving to a more physical style of game, both coaches really started to get into the action jawing at each other and really raising the level of intensity of the semifinal contest.

Even though Lincoln was able to take a lead it didn't last long as McClary was able to go coast to coast for an easy finish to tie the game back up and for the most part over the next 6 minutes of game action the lead traded back and forth as neither team was able to establish control.

Lincoln was able to take a 38-35 lead with 2:50 to play in the game after Reid stole a pass and finished in transition, but that lead was the last the Railsplitters would see as The Patrick School would go on a 10-0 run over the next 1:22 second to go from down 3 to up 7 with Harris scoring 6 points in the run to have the Celtics take control late.

Brown was able to find his way inside by beating his defender off the dribble to get Lincoln back on the board and see them draw within 5 but Harris once again came up big as he went by Flores one on one in the half court and was able to finish with a layup around two defenders to see the TPS lead pushed back to 7 again with under a minute to play.

The lead for the Celtics grew to as big as 9 with FT's starting to seal the deal, but a late Flores three and a steal and layup by Reid allowed the game to draw a bit closer for Lincoln, but now enough to fully rally as The Patrick School would advance to Sunday's title game with a 49-45 victory over Abraham Lincoln.

Harris and McClary paced the way for TPS when they really needed it as Harris had 15 to lead the way, with McClary adding 14 as well in the win, while Manuel chipped in with 10 points in a strong, dominating effort around the rim.

Flores led all scorers in the game as he had 18 points to lead the Railsplitters, while it was Brown who had 17 points of his own as well in the defeat.

It looked like this game would be the game that saw Wings push their way to Sunday's championship game as the Bronx "AA" power was matched up with Brooklyn Law & Tech, a solid and very talented Brooklyn "A" team, but an "A" Division team nonetheless.

While Wings started the first few minutes of the game well, it proved to be all Brooklyn Law and Tech after that as the team coached by Kenny Pretlow and Michael Levy outhustled, outworked, and flat out just seemed to want it more as they outplayed Wings Academy and were able to roll to the comfortable 12-point victory.

After a very trying second half against Bishop Loughlin in the quarterfinals it seemed like the senior duo of Jose Perez '17 and Boubacar Kamissoko '17 were going to carry Wings Academy in this one from the start as well as both got off to quick starts with Perez doing a strong job off the dribble taking his man inside, while Kamissoko was able to stop and knock down midrange jumpers to see Wings go up early by a 12-9 score.

The issue for Wings was they didn't maintain their offensive execution, and quite frankly the Brooklyn Law & Tech defense began to deny their Wings stars making others try and do things with the ball and they then started to struggle.

Add that in with the fact that guard Larry Moreno '18 was clicking on all cylinders, and with Mikko Johnson '17 and Walter Pitt '17 also doing a good job in the open floor for the Jets it was Brooklyn Law and Tech that had climbed back to grab a 26-25 lead on Wings Academy.

The early moments of the second half may have really been the moments that sealed this game as Moreno came out and knocked down a big three from the right side as off the dribble he was as good as anyone on the floor, and then when the Wings defense began to close out on him it became big Victor Ogbo '18 time.

Both Moreno and Pitt were handling the ball and time after time they began to feed the post where Ogbo would back his man in and finish strong. Even when he didn't he would outwork the Wings defenders and score on second chance opportunities around the rim as it seemed the tenacity of Brooklyn Law and Tech was beginning to wear Wings Academy down.

With 6:10 to play in the game Brooklyn Law and Tech opening up their first double digit lead of the game at 43-33, and even with the lead growing they never seemed to take their foot off the gas as Moreno went at Kamissoko and scored driving to the rim with his left hand, and then it was a Ogbo put back that saw the lead get to 15 for Law and Tech as they were now firmly in control of things with 3:15 to play.

To the credit of the Wings Academy players they refused to quit as Derrick Crothers '19 was a spark for them off the bench as he was able to get inside off the bounce and score around the rim on a number of occasions late to get the deficit for Wings back down to single digits at 53-44 with 1:50 to go, but each time it looked like Wings might make a run, Law & Tech had an answer.

Ogbo was able to finish off a nice feed from Pitt up the floor and score while getting fouled with under a minute to go to make it a 12-point game once again and that truly seemed to be it. Pitt was bit late as well for Law and Tech as they showed grit and toughness from start to finish to knock off once of the PSAL's best in Wings Academy, 62-50.

Moreno had a game high 21 points for Brooklyn Law and Tech in the victory, but with Ogbo adding 15 points, Pitt chipping in with 14 points, and Johnson adding 8, it was truly a team effort for the Jets in the win.

In defeat Wings Academy got 12 points from Kamissoko and 10 points from Perez and even though they fell short of their goal of winning a Conrad McRae Youth League title they clearly showed they are going to be a force in the PSAL this season.

So the championship is set for Sunday at 4:30pm at the Dean Street Playground as it will be a real David vs. Goliath matchup as Brooklyn Law and Tech will try and stun everyone once again and become the first "A" Division team to win the title when they take on The Patrick School of New Jersey for the Conrad McRae Youth League Championship.