New York City’s Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) recently crowned their four girls’ basketball borough champions last week in an epic battle for glory and bragging rights.
South Shore earned the victory for Brooklyn, Murry Bergtraum cemented their legacy in Manhattan, Metropolitan Campus won the championship for Queens and the South Bronx Prep Lady Cougars earned their third consecutive borough title.
In fact, since the inception of the borough tournament in 2022-2023. South Bronx Prep is the only team to hoist the title for the Bronx.
Lady Cougars coach Al Trawally said it’s a tremendous achievement to lead a team with fresh faces to earn another borough title by defeating Truman High School. He said each season has differed from each other with the different lineups, role players as well as their seeding within the tournament.
“This summer, I got a couple of freshmen, got some incoming players and some returning players that wanted to carry on the tradition of bringing that title home and they did it,” Trawally said. “They did it this year. It was great to see the girls come out and compete.”
During the inaugural season of the tournament, South Bronx Prep was in the lowest division, a B division school. However, in order to secure their first title, they battled through A and AA schools. The feat showed that the Lady Cougars were ready to battle even tougher schools.
When the team won the title two years in a row, they cemented to the borough that they were the team to beat.
However, after graduating a number of players the team infused two returners that had been there for both titles with emerging talent in leading scorer, freshman Falla Mbacke, and standout sophomore, Haleigh Bacote.
“Bacote has been playing tremendously, especially in the last two weeks,” Trawally said. “She had three of four threes that game, made a couple of key plays to set up other players and defensively, guarded and rebounded. She has stepped up in ways that I didn't see happening so soon, but she's been figuring it out and I'm happy to see her playing well on this stage.”
As South Bronx Prep transitions to their next task in the city playoffs next week, the Cougars are being sent off after battling steep competition in the Truman Lady Mustangs. Truman, led by Division I University of Richmond commit Shaneka Campbell, gave the Lady Cougars a battle-tested talented roster to face off with.
Trawally credits Truman for their competitiveness and hopes the Bronx Borough Championship will prepare them to make a run to the finals in the city playoffs. South Bronx Prep fell in the city playoffs semifinals last season.
“They were definitely gritty, competitive. They play hard,” Trawally said. “[Campbell] definitely showed up because she had 30 plus points, definitely hard to contain. She had a tremendous game…it was great to see. I'm a fan of this quality, good basketball even if it means that's what we're playing against.”
South Bronx Prep will find their opponent for the first round towards the end of the week once the brackets are released. Trawally anticipates a high-seeding after going 20-3 this season and a perfect 14-0 in league play.
He said the expectation is to focus on themselves and to play to the level of which they are capable.
“It's on us. I think if everybody's locked in and the focus is there, I don't see why not us?” he said. “I'm excited about this year. The girls are locked in, and I think they understand what we're playing for this year. I'm excited for them.”
