By The TimesLedger
The Long Island Panthers basketball team won the annual IS 8, Nike High School Tip-off Classic Sunday, beating defending champions SONDAY Express in the finals.
Coaches Gary Charles and Nate Cadogan relied on the play of three young team members, who are not starters, but role players, to carry the load for most of the tournament.
Cardozo senior forwards Robert Williams III and Tifford Gibbs, both 80 average students with 1150 SAT scores, and Fitz Robertson, a sophomore point guard, who led Cardozo’s junior varsity in scoring and was the team MVP last year, held down the fort for the Panthers through the season and first round playoff games until prep school stars like Daryl Hill, (Milford Academy, West Virginia-bound, co-MVP’s Tyquan Dean, (Neptune HS, Louisville-bound), Curtis Sumpter, (Bishop Loughlin, Villanova-bound), Tim Doyle (St. Dominic, St. John’s-bound) and Vic Fletcher and Lamont Hamilton (both of Milford Academy) stepped into starting roles.
Christ the King’s Mike Claxton also played a tough game, specifically on the defensive end, and Rashaun Clarke, of Beach Channel High School, who has been making noise locally and probably raised his stock nationally and should get some hard looks this 2002 summer circuit , made a key block as SONDAY was attempting a run during crunch time.
These role players gave the encouragement and enthusiasm to sustain a tough effort and victory.
These are the type of players that the Panthers program produce. Not just the great stars, but great role players that are necessary to win championships as the team has done for the entire 2001 season.
The Panthers were not only facing a tough young defending 2000 champion in SONDAY Express, but the vaunted Riverside Church team, in what has become a heated rivalry lately.
