Since the Orange Wave of Thomas Jefferson Campus played their last PSAL game it appeared as though everything was going wrong.

Junior power forward and team leading scorer Joel Wright was suspended for two games after being ejected from the Brooklyn Borough Championship game against Lincoln last month. Senior shooting guard Keith Spellman was diagnosed with a back injury that would sideline him for a few weeks. Orange Wave head coach Lawrence Pollard was suspended by Jefferson Principal Lottie Almonte for one playoff game in light of Wright's suspension.

With all that surrounding the Orange Wave they headed into Tuesday's opening round AA playoff game against the Bulldogs of Campus Magnet without their leading scorer and their head coach. However, by halftime the presence of both team leaders did not seem to matter. The Orange Wave seemed to be sparked by the presence of David Coley, who played his first game against PSAL competition this season after missing the entire regular season with partial muscle tears in his left leg. Jefferson also received a boost from another one of their leaders Keith Spellman, who appeared to unlikely able to play in the playoffs a few weeks ago.

"I got to play. Either I had to warm up or something; I had to get on the court," said Spellman. "I got to give my team some inspiration because if I am not there, they will fall apart." The senior guard's teammates appeared to be inspired in the second quarter. After holding a six point advantage at the end of a first quarter that Jefferson ended on a 7-1 run; the Orange Wave began the second quarter with an 8-0 run that put the game out of reach.

"Defense, defense, defense," Coley (nine points) said of his teams second quarter performance. "We won the game with defense and rebounding." Coley's team held the Bulldogs to eight second quarter points and held a 47 to 21 halftime lead. The Bulldogs never had an opportunity to get back into the game in the second half as Jefferson lead by as many as 29 points before cruising to an 86 to 52 victory. The Orange Wave who played excellent team defense also shared the wealth offensively as four Jefferson players reached double figures in scoring. Junior guard Marcus Romain led the team in scoring with 19 points, Davontay Grace and Kashean Alston poured in 12 points and Spellman scored 10 points. Coley also looked solid in his first game back from injury as he scored nine points (seven in the first half) for the Orange Wave.