Naz beats All Hallows but wants more
BROOKLYN, NY – Friday evening featured two Class AA caliber teams playing in the CHSAA Class A division. This season, All Hallows opted to move down from the double while Naz is a single A squad that hopes to move up in class next season. Their faceoff pitted arguably the two best CHSAA Class A schools in NYC.
Both teams were undefeated coming in but a young and hungry Kingsmen squad under Nazareth’s new head coach Dwayne “Tiny” Morton systematically chopped down the Gaels, handing All Hallow its first loss, 97 – 82. Playing with poise and maturity, it’s clear that the Kingsmen could be competitive playing a level up but that will have to wait until perhaps next season much to Coach Morton’s chagrin.
With nine of his players being sophomores, one would think that Coach Morton would be happy that his squad is getting its feet wet in the single A before moving up but the former head coach from Abraham Lincoln HS thinks otherwise. “I’m not happy at all. [We] don’t get any respect in New York City. Not at all.”
The Kingsmen did work on it homecourt, receiving a balance scoring performance with 5’10” Khalil Brantley ’21 leading the way with 22 points. 6’4” Ziare Wells ’21 contributed 18 points while 6’3” Tyreck “TJ” Morris, Jr. and 6’5” Jaqai Murray added 16 points apiece. With that being said, Coach Morton acknowledge he faced some growing pains with such a young team. “It’s like a rollercoaster. They’re very young so they’re gonna make mistakes.”
Some of those mistakes emerged in the second half when 6’4” Nick Johnson ‘19 and 6’4” Devin Diaz ‘20, who paced the Gaels with 26 points and 22 points respectively, cut All Hallows’ deficit to 6 points with 5 minutes left to play. But with Murray powering up in the paint down the stretch along with solid free-throw shooting, Naz showed its resilience, extending its lead back to 13 point with under a minute left to play. That point spread was enough to hold off All Hallows.
Coach Morton told NYCHoops.net that the local Class AA team might be afraid to play against his young team, but the Nazareth Kingsmen have a strong out-of-league schedule coming up. They will be playing against some of the best teams in the tri-state area. If a team with nine sophomore can pull off wins against veteran powerhouses like St. Benedict and St. Patrick, Coach Morton and his Kingsmen will get more than enough respect in NYC.
