Smith, a senior out of Amityville High School, was not at his best Thursday night at St. John’s University, playing for the Queens All-Stars in the…
By Anthony Bosco
Tristan Smith was disappointed, but at least he knew there would be plenty of times to make up for it.
Smith, a senior out of Amityville High School, was not at his best Thursday night at St. John’s University, playing for the Queens All-Stars in the 28th annual Wheelchair Classic, a charity basketball tournament engineered by Wheelchair Charities founder Hank Carter, with proceeds going to Roosevelt Island’s Coler-Goldwater Memorial Hospital.
It was not the kind of Alumni Hall debut Smith had in mind when he announced his intention to play for the St. John’s Red Storm earlier this month, but at least it was a for good cause.
“I had fun, but I played horrible today,” said Smith, who was held scoreless as Queens was blown out for the second straight time in the tournament, losing to Brooklyn 95-70 in the consolation game. “I was just out here going through the motions. I wasn’t myself today. But I’m glad I came out because it’s helping a great group of people. Honestly, I didn’t play good at all. I’m not happy with myself at all.”
Smith, who had six points, six assists and five rebounds during his first game on the court two days earlier in a 116-94 loss to the Bronx, never seemed to get into the flow of the game Thursday, which was played before a sparse crowd that included future head coach Mike Jarvis and current Red Storm members Reggie Jessie, Donald Emanuel, Abe Keita, Alpha Bangura and John Parker.
Still, Smith was philosophical about his performance and that of the Queens teams.
“It’s real good [to play at Alumni Hall], but to play like that…I’m real embarrassed,” Smith said. “It’s a real good feeling knowing I’m coming here and [this game is] not about winning or losing. Of course you want to win. You go into every game to win, but it’s more for the hospital.”
One moment of comic relief during the game was when Smith entered midway through the third quarter along with four other fresh teammates, and took the inbound pass near the right wing of the Brooklyn basket. Smith turned and started dribbling downcourt to the wrong basket, trying in vain to stop himself at midcourt when he realized his blunder.
“That was real embarrassing,” Smith joked after the game. “When I came in everybody was looking around and I really thought we were going the other way, until I got to halfcourt and I tried to stop myself. Yeah, that was real embarrassing, but you got to play through stuff like that sometimes. Unfortunately, it was me.”
The game featured only man-to-man defense and a rule that required coaches to insert five new players every four minutes, something which certainly disrupted the flow and kept Queens from establishing a rhythm against the talented team from Brooklyn.
Led by St. Francis Prep’s Rashad Bell, Queens overcame an early 10-5 deficit, as Bell, the leading scorer in the CHSAA this season, scored seven straight points to make the score 14-11. Four more points by Bell helped his team take a 19-16 lead heading into the second quarter.
For most of his time on the floor, Bell was matched against Jamaica native Kenny Adeleke, out of Robeson High School. Bell held the early advantage in the match-up, but Adeleke came on late, finishing with 17 points.
“That’s kind of a little competitive relationship we got,” Bell said of his battle with Adeleke, which included a lot of talking between the two. “We’re not friends on the court, off the court we’re friends.
“It was kind of fun, even though we got smacked.”
Bryant’s Deshawn Williams, Cross Chris Fileti, Damien Herard of Francis Lewis and St. Dominc’s Tim Doyle all helped keep Queens close in the second quarter.
Queens trailed at the half, 43-40, but Brooklyn turned it on in the third quarter, scoring the first 10 points of the half and dominating the rest of the quarter, leaving any hopes of a Queens win in the dust.
With the game out of reach late, Queens, coached by Holy Cross’ Paul Gilvary, Newtown’s Pat Torney and Lloyd Desvigne of the Long Island Panthers, just tried to keep it respectable and, in the process, provided some of the highlights of the entire tournament, thanks to the play of Cardozo’s Daryl Hill, the team’s MVP, and Redemption Christian’s Ryan Williams, who wowed the crown with some circus-style dunks.
In the end, though, is was all for charity, a fact exemplified by Holy Cross senior Sean Wallace, who won the tournament’s best essay award. Each player on all four teams were required to visit Goldwater prior to the tournament and write an essay on their experience.
“I’m really happy to be a part of something like this,” Wallace said after the game. “It was a lot of fun playing with a lot of guys considered to be the best in Queens.”
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at TimesLedgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 130.
