Statement win for Bowne Wildcats; TMA gets battered
BROOKLYN, NY- Coming off a season a year ago where they were the PSAL Queens Borough Champions expectations for the 2019-2020 season are even higher for the John Bowne Wildcats. They want to compete for a City Championship this time around and wanted to make an early season statement on Saturday afternoon against Thurgood Marshall Academy at the Bridge 2 Greatness Thanksgiving Classic.
The Panthers were the #4 seed in the City Playoffs a year ago with Bowne being the #8 seed. That meant coming in the Wildcats had a chip on their shoulder with a point to prove that there is no doubt who the team to reckon with and watch is this year.
From near start to finish it was point proven by John Bowne as they controlled the game from start to finish as their length and aggressiveness defensively stifled the Panthers offensively, while on the other side the Wildcats did just about anything they wanted from the perimeter and in the paint as led by Aguibou Balde '21 and his 14 points it was Bowne running away for a 70-40 victory.
Admitting that they had something to prove as a team against a Thurgood Marshall Academy squad that is routinely among the best in the PSAL, Wildcats head coach John Tsapelas said that the main thing he wanted his group to show on Saturday was that regardless of the opposition put in front of them that no one was going to work harder.
"One of the things we are trying to preach this year is we don't want to be outworked by anybody, we believe if we work harder than any other team, we see the rest will fall into place," Tsapelas explained.
That mindset was evident early as Bowne had 5 blocked shots in the opening quarter alone as each time the likes of Kevin Dinkins '20 or John Easley '20 tried to attack the basket there was one of the Wildcats bigs ready to meet them and swat the ball out of the way. Combine that with the fact that Balde and Amadou Diallo '21 had things going from behind the arc off great ball movement and quickly it was Bowne with a double-digit lead.
It was 17-6 after a quarter and the Bowne barrage only continued from there as the Wildcats hit on 5 of 8 from three point range in the opening half, and with their length continuing to be an issue for TMA the lead was bumped all the way up to 36-15 for John Bowne at the break.
Against a quality level of opposition, it was a near flawless half of basketball for the Wildcats, with Tsapelas saying that it was their intention to not just outwork everyone, but make sure that the Panthers knew who the area around the rim belonged to.
"We want to protect our paint, if you are going to shoot it, we want teams shooting from the outside because you won't shoot as high of a percentage that way," Tsapelas said.
John Bowne protected just about every area on Saturday though as while they made life difficult for the Panthers inside, they also closed out on the shooters extremely well not allowing Thurgood Marshall to get any sort of momentum going. If there was any negative at all it was the apparent shoulder injury suffered by Wildcats big man Cherif Diarra '20 in the third quarter, but even that couldn't spoil the impressive showing that was put together by a strong, talented, and deep Bowne team.
As the fourth quarter pushed along Tsapelas sat his starters and put in his bench, but even there the likes of Amare Bonas '21 and Matthew Parkinson '20 were able to get clean looks and finish from the outside. If there was a way to make a major statement early in the season this was it as the Wildcats proved to the PSAL that they are going to be a team to reckon with this year in what would be a dominating 70-40 win over TMA.
Balde would go 4-6 from the outside and finish with a team high 14 points for John Bowne with Diallo adding 12, Bonas chipping in with 10, and Diarra finishing with 8 in a victory that saw 11 Wildcat players in total get on the scoreboard.
Dinkins in the defeat was the high scorer in the game with 15 points for Thurgood Marshall who still look to be the favorites in Manhattan, though on this day just couldn't compete with the intensity and skill that John Bowne brought to the table.
Proving that they will outwork their opponents and protect the paint, it was a complete effort from Bowne on Saturday with this according to Diallo being a preview of what's to come from the Wildcats for the rest of the season as he sees this as a special season ahead for the new Queens power.
"We want to be the best, be number one, and go to the chip," Diallo stated. "This is the start."
