Orange Wave crashes on Boys High
BROOKLYN, NY - This would be the first time that the Thomas Jefferson Orange faced Boys &Girls since they lost to them last season at Madison Square Garden in the PSAL championship.
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Jefferson clearly had built up a lot of angst and unleashed it all at once on Saturday in a, 83-63, beatdown of the Kangaroos in their own gym.
"They didn't protect their house," said an elated Jermoine "Flirt" Faison, sarcastically alluding to the Under Armour logo in Boys & Girls gym.
The game began as an all out war as two young teams played scrappy but often careless basketball. Jamie Killings (14 points) set the stage early putting the Kangaroos ahead in front of their home court fans until a trey by Patrick Brown (12 points) tied the affair at 6.
Jefferson pressured Boys & Girls' point guard Marvin Prochet (12 points) on every possession but the sophomore initially navigated well. The lead sashayed back and forth but the Orange Wave settled for perimeter shot while big man Larry Moore (12 points) scored inside. Although putting forth a sub-par performance, Wesley Myers (6 points) finished the quarter giving Boys High a 1 point lead as the second quarter began.
Head Coach Ruth Lovelace instructed the Roos to ramp up their defensive pressure which resulted in offensive buckets in transition off of turnovers. With 3:44 left in the half, Boys & Girls enjoyed a 29-22 lead.
Jefferson seemed rocked until Nazi Stokes (9 points) eventually pierced the Roos' armor with a 3-ball right between the eyes. That shot would shift the momentum and the Orange Wave began to swell. Boys & Girls would resist but a mid-range by Faison (14 points) and free-throws by Brown would turn the tide ever so slightly giving Jefferson the one-point guard at the half.
Killings came out blazing in the third and briefly flipped the script for Boys High but poor free-throw shooting plagued them throughout the game and caught up with them down the stretch. This was highlighted as Myers went 1 of 3 after a gift when a Jefferson player and their head coach Lawrence "Bud" Pollard picked up techs in the third.
Jaquan Lynch (26 points), Brown and Stokes would regain the lead once and for all and with 3:04 left in the third, Richard Moody (7 points) finished off a 19-7 run that put the Orange Wave comfortably ahead by 13 points. A lead that they would carry into the fourth quarter.
Jefferson would extend their lead before Prochet countered. Boys High tried to comeback but frequent turnovers by their backcourt impeded progress. Other than a nice dunk by Killings, the Kangaroos faithful didn't have much to cheer about en route to a 20 point pounding.
After the game, the Orange Wave players mocked Boys & Girls' famous chant, "You can't beat the High" by chanting "You can't ride the Wave."
The rematch should be interesting.
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