By Anthony Bosco
Ron Naclerio sat quietly shaking his head as the fans filed out of the Lehman College gymnasium Saturday evening. The head coach of the Cardozo Judges had watched his team all but completely erase an 18-point second-half deficit against the top-seeded Robeson Eagles, mostly without the services of star Daryll Hill. Naclerio just couldn’t believe it was over.
“Damn,” he muttered, still in disbelief that his team had been ousted from the PSAL ‘A’ quarterfinals, falling to Robeson 77-67.
In the end, Robeson simply had too many weapons, not that Cardozo didn’t make it interesting.
Early in the first half it was Robeson’s frontcourt that seemed to be the difference, with Queens native Kenny Adeleke and Lovell Nimmons dominating the glass and Anthony Williams slashing inside and hitting from the outside. Robeson raced out to a 10-2 lead on Williams’ three-pointer at the 3:51 mark.
Cardozo (20-7) came back, however, behind the play of Dimitri Dimitropoulos, Tifford Gibbs, John Forbes and freshman Dwayne Johnson, all of whom scored during an 8-0 run to tie the game with 19 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
But Robeson (25-1) regained the lead on Shakim Berry’s basket in the waning seconds to make the score 12-10 at the end of one. The Eagles quickly took control of the game in the second quarter.
“We had too many opportunities to keep it close early and we didn’t,” said Naclerio of his team’s inability to stay with Robeson’s potent offense through the first three quarters. “Nobody was really on. They took some tough shots and their size killed us.”
The Eagles’ lead ballooned to nine when DePaul-signee Adeleke converted at 3:33 despite being fouled. A minute later Williams drained a bucket to give Robeson its first double-digit lead of the day, 26-15. Cardozo twice cut the lead to nine in the final minutes, but a three by Gary Ervin at the buzzer gave the Eagles a 13-point halftime lead, 34-21.
Hill, the Judges’ leading scorer, was held to just four points in the first half, his playing time limited by foul trouble. The senior point guard picked up two quick fouls in the game’s opening minutes.
The two teams exchanged baskets for much of the third quarter and it wasn’t until the Eagles scored five straight points in less than a minute that the lead grew to its largest of the game, 52-34, with 1:25 remaining in the period. Hill responded for the Judges, scoring six straight points to keep Cardozo close, trailing 54-42 heading into the fourth.
After a Hill basket to cut the lead to 10, Ervin scored five consecutive points, making the score 59-44. Only then did Cardozo finally start pecking away at the lead, as Dana Townsend, Dimitropoulos and Terrell Robinson cut the lead to eight with consecutive baskets. The two teams traded technical foul shots and three-pointers before Townsend scored back-to-back buckets at 4:00 and 3:16 to make the score 67-60.
The freshman Johnson, playing in place of Hill, who fouled out moments earlier, drilled a three with 2:51 remaining, making it a four-point game.
After the game Adeleke admitted that his team started to panic.
“Yeah, I was real nervous,” the senior said. “Sometimes in close games it’s not about which is the best team, but the team that plays the best.”
Adeleke and the rest of the Eagles quickly righted the ship. Seven straight points by the Eagles — five from the foul line — pushed the lead back to double-digits, 74-63, with 47.6 seconds remaining, closing the door on Cardozo’s comeback.
“We were trying to comeback,” said a solemn Hill after the game. “We tried to get them in foul trouble. I thought we were going to win this game. We just came up short.”
Robeson coach Larry Major was just happy to come away with the win and advance to the semifinals.
“By one or by 100 it doesn’t make a difference to me,” Major said. “They play hard. If they didn’t lose to Campus Magnet [twice during the regular season] they could have been a lot higher. This team is a four seed.”
“It feels good,” said Adeleke, who finished with 11 points. Nimmons led the Eagles, who improved to 26-1, with 20.
Despite his foul trouble, Hill led Cardozo, which finishes the season with a record of 20-7, with 18 points, followed by 13 from Dimitropoulos, 12 from Townsend and 10 by Johnson.
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 130.
