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Vikings advance to SMARTBall championship round

The SMARTBall Classic field of 24 became narrowed down to three as the semifinal round took place on Thursday with the players from the South Shore Vikings and the Mount Vernon Knights at Harlem’s Lincoln Park turned out to be a game for the ages. After falling behind by a lot early and only having five players, South Shore stormed back to overtake the Knights, 71 -69, advancing to the championship round of the single game elimination tournament.

Mt. Vernon took an early and pronounced lead behind the offense of Charlie Lovett ‘20 along with tenacious rebounding from Troy Hapstead ‘20 (11 rebounds). In the first half, the Vikings were down 21 – 1 before they knew what hit them.

Marcus Burnett began clearing the way for South Shore, multitasking between scoring and snatching boards in an effort to jumpstart transition play. At the half, the Vikings made some headway but still trailed 43 – 31 in an uphill battle that was exacerbated by the fact that they physically had no bench players.

In the third quarter, Mt. Vernon’s defense all but dried up and the Vikings took advantage. Burnett kept the Knights on its heel and in the fourth quarter, Nayquan Pounder ‘20 joined in to help sustain South Shore’s surge. Hapstead tried to stave off the undermanned Vikings comeback but perimeter shooting by Jahiem Mason ‘21 in addition to consistent team rebounding eventually anointed South Shore, king of the hill.

Burnett paced South Shore with 23 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. The high man for Mt. Vernon was Lovett who netted a game high 28 points to go with 3 assists.

The second semifinal game between St. Patrick and Our Saviour Lutheran was postponed due to rain and will be held on Friday at 7:30 pm. The championship will be held on Saturday at 7:30 pm.

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