Lincoln Wins Back-to-Back SMARTBall Chips
NEW YORK, NY - Players from Curtis HS wanted to enact revenge against the Railsplitters on Monday for being beaten by them in the PSAL quarterfinals last season. Instead, what the Warriors received was more of the same as players from Abraham Lincoln kept the Staten Island Class A squad at bay to win their second Smartball Classic championship in as many years.
A large crowd gathered at Lincoln park in Harlem to watch the two combatants go at it. Abraham Lincoln set the pace early and led the Warriors for most of the contest. A valiant comeback by Curtis would give the Warriors a brief lead in the fourth quarter but the veteran leadership of Donald Flores ’17 (21 points, 4 steals & 3 assists) would help eek out a 65-62 Railsplitters victory and back to back SMARTBall Classic HS Summer City Championships.
Flores, who also earned back-to-back MVP honors, told NYCHoops.net that he was not going to let his team lose. “I had to be very big and very vocal tonight. It’s my job this year to be the leader.”
One of Flores’s followers from the onset was 6’2” Curtis Gordon ‘18 (15 points) who jump started Lincoln’s 5-point lead in the opening quarter. Curtis began to fire on all cylinders in the second quarter but Flores raised his game and pushed the Lincoln advantage to ten points with 3:04 remaining. Samuel Majekodunmi ’17 (15 points) tried to narrow the gap but the Railsplitters were still on top, 35-23 at the half.
Curtis was combo guard heavy and struggled without a true point guard or center whereas Lincoln had Flores running the show and 6’10” big man Othello Smith ‘17 (2 rebounds & 5 blocks) clogging up the middle. With that being said, the Staten Islanders still didn’t go quietly into the night.
The combination of Majekodunmi and Malik Martin ’18 (13 points) began to show lethality as Curtis slowly carved into Lincoln's lead. And-Ones plus a steal and a basket by Ransford Agyeman ’17 (11 points) followed by Adeleye Oyekanmi ‘19 (13 points) reduced the Warriors deficit significantly.
What would end up being a 20-9 Curtis run in the third quarter set the stage for an OK corral type shoot-out in the final quarter. Flores set it off with a trifecta to start the quarter but sharpshooter Chris Fabozzi ’17 (7 points) countered for Curtis. Klay Brown ‘18 (8 points) stepped up for Lincoln but it would not be enough. With under two-minutes left in regulation, Agyeman nailed a clutch 3-ball that gave Curtis its first lead at 60-59.
The Warrior’s lead was fleeting as Brown soon righted the ship and Mike Reid ’17 (11 points) nailing down two free-throws with 18 seconds left to put the Railsplitters ahead by three-points. Curtis had a chance to tie but an errant pass by Fabozzi led to a turnover, squashing that scenario for good.
With the emergence of Class A teams like F.D.A. and Curtis pulling off upsets against top Class AA teams like Thomas Jefferson and Cardinal Hayes during the tournament, many were speculating that Lincoln would become the next victim of class warfare (62% to 38% according to a recent @NYCHoops twitter poll) but the Railsplitters were circulating amongst its teammates what turned out to be a more accurate poll. “Everybody was mistaken, thinking that Curtis was going to beat us this year,” said Flores.
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