OCEANSIDE, NY – The Beacon 158 Tournament was up and running on Wednesday and NYCHoops.net was on hand to check out two undefeated NYC squads that we hadn’t gotten a chance to preview during recent preseason tournaments. As the game got underway it became abundantly clear who was cruising and who was in the process of crashing and burning. Undersized and young was a recipe of disaster as NYC Finest, a team with players from John Bowne HS ground and pounded the Brooklyn Jets, 54 – 36.

Paced by perimeter shooting and scoring in the paint from Daesean Green and Djibril Diallo, NYC Finest quickly took a 12 lead with 7:15 left in the first half. The Brooklyn Jets did receive some sporadic offense from Ka’ran Whitehead and Keyshaun Murry but the Finest took advantage of their poor shooting which often led to points in transition.

The Brooklyn Jets trailed 28 – 13 and while and undersized backcourt was part of the problem, death by three-point attempt was their ultimate quicksand. To their credit, Coach Kenny Pretlow’s squad did make a run midway through the second half, spearheaded by Murry, Whitehead and Nasir Muhammed. Coach Rob Diaz however urged his squad end it and they did with strong closeout points from Christopher Judge

Judge and Jamere Russell were the high scorers for NYC Finest with 11 points with Green and Diallo contributing 10 points and 8 points, respectively. Whitehead was the leading scorer for Brooklyn Jets with a game high 12 points.