Knights Roll as W.H.E.E.L.S. Fall Off in Westchester
MOUNT VERNON, NY – The Wolves traveled north of New York City from Washington Heights to face off against the Mt. Vernon Knights. W.H.E.E.L.S. head coach Josh Krinsky admitted he really didn’t know a lot about their opponent but got on the job training on Friday.
The Knights did what they've done for years which is to swarm opponents with their defense, get out in transition, transforming turnovers into points. When the dust settled, Mt Vernon had stripped the Manhattan PSAL “AA” squad clean, leaving them with a 91-57 defeat and a lesson learned.
For the record, Knights head coach Bob Cimmino said he also had no idea about their opponent’s capabilities. “We had zero plan on how to play W.H.E.E.L.S. We heard they had a good record.” Cimmino added that they were a bit stress about the Fake News that was circulating the high school. “It was going around the cafeteria that [W.H.E.E.L.S.] had a seven-foot three kid today so the kids were prepared for that.”
Perhaps the lack of a seven-footer was part in parcel as to why the Knights overcompensated with a whopping 34 points win. “I knew Coach [Krinisky] wanted to come up here so I thought they’d be pretty good,” said Cimmino.
Noah Morgan ‘17 and sharpshooter Jason Douglas-Stanley ’18 got the party started for Mt. Vernon with speedy point guard Demetre Roberts '19 setting both the tone and the table for the Knight. W.H.E.E.L.S. point guard Ryan Pye ‘19 penetrated and briefly gave the Wolves a 1 point lead but that was short lived as Mt. Vernon started apply pressure defense like an anaconda.
At the end of the warm-up quarter, the Knights were already up by nine points and continued to squeeze. Excellent ball movement and rebounding by committee soon put W.H.E.E.L.S. into an even deeper hole.
With Greg Calixte ‘17 and Morgan as the primary backboard cleaners and perimeter shots from Douglas-Stanley ‘18 and Eric Monroe ‘17, Mt. Vernon improved its lead to 32 points off a 17 – 0 run with 2:15 left in the first half. This was in response to an 8 -2 Wolves run that had cut its deficit to 15 points.
W.H.E.E.L.S. began the third quarter down 45- 24 and in serious trouble. Coach Krinsky said his team was fired up to play but lost track of the fundamentals in the process. “In that first half, we abandoned [the fundamentals].”
As the second half got underway, the Wolves really had no answer for Mount Vernon’s question. The Knights were firing on all cylinders and led by 28 point as the final quarter got underway. The Knights were simply taking target practice as Roberts punctured W.H.E.E.L.S. defense and got his teammates involved in the offense. With 5:14 left to play and Mt. Vernon ahead 77 – 44, Coach Cimmino took his foot off the Wolves neck and subbed out his starters as his squad coasted to the win.
“That’s a different level of team we played especially on the defensive end,” said Coach Krinsky. “It was very hard to initiate our offense.”
Morgan led the way for Mt. Vernon with 22 points with Douglas-Stanley and Roberts adding 21 points and 14 points respectively. Raheem Ragsdale ‘18 was the high man for W.H.E.E.L.S. with 17 points with no other player scoring in double-digits.
