PSAL Quarterfinals Action

JAMAICA, NY - The quarterfinal round of the PSAL Playoffs got underway on Saturday at St. John's University. For four teams the season came to an abrupt halt.

Cardozo vs. Boys & Girls was the first game of quarterfinal round of the PSAL playoffs. It looked like one team was ready to start the playoffs, while the other team was still going through warmups. 6th seed Boys & Girls came out on fire in the first quarter, jumping out to an 18-4 lead when the quarter ended. 3rd Seeded Cardozo seemingly did not know that the ball was live, and it was time to go full speed.

Coming into the game, in two out of the last three years, Cardozo has knocked the Kangaroos out of the playoffs. They were making shots and playing well as a team and kept the cushion going into the half. Still, the fast start and the 2nd half wasn’t enough to stop Cardozo from knocking Boys & Girls out for the third time in the last four years. The Judges got it together in the third quarter and came back to win 60-55 to advance to the PSAL semifinals next weekend.

In the first half, the Judges tried to play hero ball after falling behind by as many as 18 points early in the 2nd quarter. They did a lot of full court one on everybody else drives and played as if they were panicking. They were able to cut the deficit to 11, but they didn’t play particularly well getting there. In fact, it was surprising that Boys weren’t up by more at the end of the first half. The score was 29-18, but if you weren’t keeping score you would’ve thought the game was a blowout.

The second half was when things started to settle down for Cardozo and they started to play under control. Head coach Ron Naclerio said as much after the game. He was asked what changed when the third quarter started.

“Shots started falling, our defense got really good. We went back to man instead of our amoeba zone and it’s a lot different when the shots start falling. [Boys & Girls] are a pretty good shooting team who I thought shot, very good in the first half. Second half, thank god, they went back to their norm”.

Cardozo’s senior backcourt of Marcus Hammond and Dejavaughn Utley came alive in the third quarter. Naclerio believes that they are as good as any other senior backcourt in the city. After the third quarter, no one would be able to dispute that opinion.

Utley was the first one to get things started in the period. He drove and finished the first of his two old-fashioned three-point plays in the period. The basket gave his teammates a shot of adrenalin that you can only give when you’re sitting on the floor after a tough lay-up and a referee’s whistle. After senior forward Collins Onyeike scored inside, Hammond played his part, drilling a three pointer from the top of the key. That basket made it 33-26 and proved that Cardozo had all the momentum at that point.

On the next possession, Utley finished another old-fashioned three-point play and followed that with the standard triple from the left wing and suddenly, the game was tied at 33. Hammond closed out the scoring for the quarter with two more three pointers, one from almost the same spot as Utley’s, and then another from the top of the key. The score was 39-35 when the quarter ended.

Overall, the defense was outstanding, as the Judges never let Boys get comfortable again. They forced turnovers and protected the rim in a big way. Onyeike was a monster, turning away Boys attacking guards and getting 8 blocked shots. Naclerio jokingly said that he became Bill Russell in the second half.

Even though Boys & Girls wouldn’t go away, they could never get closer than three points the rest of the way. Cardozo just got stronger as the minutes wound down.

Hammond and Utley both finished with 16 points and 6 rebounds. Onyeike had 7 points and 5 boards to go with the 8 blocks. Boys was led seniors Devonte Henry and Richard Martelly. Both players scored 14 points in the contest.

Lincoln beat Curtis in last year’s PSAL semifinals at St. John’s Carnesecca Arena. This year the teams met again in the same place, except this time it’s the quarterfinals, one round earlier. Despite trailing for most of the game, Curtis made it back to the semifinals when Malik Martin made two free throws with 3.4 seconds left to help Curtis squeak past Lincoln 53-52. Curtis only led for the last 3.4 seconds of the game.

Curtis celebrated the game like it was an upset, jumping up and down when the clock hit zero. Technically, it’s not an upset because the Warriors were the higher seeded team at the fourth seed, while Lincoln was the fifth seed. Also, Lincoln was the defending champs, so that had a lot to do with the elation Curtis felt after the game.

Head coach Dwayne Archbold was extremely happy after the game. He also had last season’s playoff lost fresh in his memory, so the win was huge for the team.

“[It’s a] very big win. Big win for us, our program, our borough” Archbold said. “We’re going back to the semifinals. It’s the second year in a row, its big because we lost to them last year”

The game was close throughout the entire contest. Lincoln led for almost the entire game, just not when it mattered most. They were done in by horrendous free throw shooting in the fourth quarter. As a team, Lincoln only made 1 out of 7 free throws in the last 3 minutes of the game.

By contrast, Curtis went 9 for 13 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter. According to Archbold, they’re an average free throw shooting team, but they made them when they needed to make them against Lincoln and that’s what was important.

Having Malik Martin on the floor was probably the most important thing to help Curtis. Martin made huge plays in the game. With 32.8 seconds left in the game and Curtis trailing 51-48, he missed two free throws. But he was somehow able to get his own rebound, put up a shot that he missed badly, get another rebound and this time getting the put-back to go through the net.

Then after Lincoln senior Jasiah Lewis split a pair of free throws with 10.5 seconds left, Martin was fouled on a drive to the rim with 3.4 seconds showing on the clock. He swished both for the lead and the win for Curtis.

Archbold was asked how his team was able to keep their composure and win despite being down for most of the game.

“It’s our philosophy. I tell the guys, we don’t lay down for nobody. So, we keep playing until the last buzzer sounds”.

Martin finished with a double-double. He had 18 points and 10 rebounds. He led his team in assists with 3, and also defended well with 4 blocks. Juniors Adelye Oyekanmi and Darnell Askew had 13 and 10 points respectively.

Lewis and Curtis Gordon both played their last game for Lincoln because they are seniors. They finished with 12 points each.

Jaquan Carlos had two early fouls in the game and had to go to the bench in the first quarter. The talented freshman had scored the first 7 points of the game for Jefferson. The Orange Wave trailed Eagle Academy 10-9 after the first period.

The 2nd quarter saw sophomores Marcus Burnett and Kevin Tabb pick it up for Jefferson. Burnett scored all 9 of his points in the period including a corner pocket three. Tabb (8 points) hit a 3 and then intercepted a pass at half-court on the next possession for an uncontested transitional lay-up, igniting Jefferson to get their offense going. Carlos came back into the game with a couple of minutes to play in the first half and drained a triple in the final seconds to give Jefferson a 32-24 lead at the break.

The third quarter was low scoring with Jefferson only scoring 8 points in the 8-minute period. But it still is something that they could be proud of because they only gave up 2 points to Eagle. The final quarter was for record keeping purposes only.

Carlos finished with a game high 21 points for the winners. Kareem Welch scored 13 points and had 4 assists.

Senior guard Floyd Samuels was the only Eagle player in double figures with 19 points.

Top seeded South Shore proved they are undoubtedly the team to beat in this year’s PSAL playoffs. The Vikings dominated Robeson after a close first quarter, basically wearing down a team that didn’t have any answers.

The score was 21-19 after the first 8 minutes, but South Shore expanded their lead to 14 when the half ended. They ran the floor when the opportunity presented itself, but they were impressive in the half-court too. They whipped that ball around until they found the open man, and then that player took the shot. It was impressive to see a high school team play with that type of poise.

Junior Femi Odukale finished with 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. Senior Sekou Sylla scored a game high 19 points, while junior Isaiah Richard dominated inside with 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Robeson was led by senior guard Aquarn Butler with 17 points. Butler did everything he could in his last high school game, but it wasn’t close to enough. Sophomore Terrel Roberts scored 15 for the Eagles.