By Dylan Butler
They’ve gone head-to-head on Queens playgrounds, and Saturday Royal Ivey and Cheyne Gadson met again but with the stage slightly larger.
Ivey, the former Cardozo standout, and Gadson, who starred at Jamaica, were each in the starting lineup as Texas took on No. 5 Oklahoma State in the teams’ Big 12 openers.
Ivey, a sophomore shooting guard, has been a regular in the Longhorns’ starting lineup since he arrived in Austin but for Gadson, also a two guard, it was only his second start for Eddie Sutton’s Cowboys. The 6-foot-3 guard from Jamaica replaced Oklahoma State leading scorer Maurice Baker, who missed the first half with a groin injury.
Ivey scored 15 points — including a career-high 4-of-4 from three-point range — to lead the Longhorns to a 70-61 victory, handing Oklahoma State its first loss of the year.
Ivey’s fourth three-pointer, in particular, was huge. With Texas clinging to a 59-57 lead, Ivey faked running around a screen and popped back to nail the trifecta over Gadson.
Gadson had nine points and six rebounds, but shot just 3-of-13 as the Cowboys shot a dismal 32.8 from the field.
“A lot of things are orchestrated around Mo [Baker] and with him not out there it’s hard for other people to step up their game,” Gadson said. “We tried our best but I guess we didn’t succeed as well as we tried.”
Ivey’s performance though was marred by an ugly incident with 18.1 seconds left in the second half involving Texas players and an Oklahoma State fan.
Ivey and Texas point guard T.J. Ford jumped over photographers on the baseline after a loose ball and Ford inadvertently knocked down a pregnant woman. Ford bent over and appeared ready to help the woman up, but the woman’s husband grabbed Ford by the neck. Ivey jumped in and helped wrestle the man to the ground before Texas players raced in to help.
Queensbridge native Martin resigns as LIU coach
Ray Martin’s four-year tenure as coach of the Long Island University men’s basketball team ended last Thursday when the Queensbridge native resigned from his post following the Blackbirds’ 0-9 start.
In his four years at LIU, the Mater Christi graduate nicknamed “Dice” compiled a 30-61 record. Top assistant Ron Brown, a former head coach at Florida A&M, took over for Martin, but was unable to rally the Blackbirds, who dropped a 73-57 decision to Monmouth Friday and fell 109-86 to Farleigh Dickinson Sunday.
Former McClancy standout Antawn Dobie scored a season-high 30 points and LeFrak City’s JaJa Bey added 20 points and seven rebounds in the loss to FDU.
Women’s basketball
Villanova 61, St. John’s 45. Rasheedah Brown had 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists for the Red Storm (3-11, 0-3 Big East ) in a conference loss at Alumni Hall Sunday. Villanova (8-4, 2-0) had three players in double figures, including Courtney Mix who had a game-high 15 points and nine rebounds.
Montclair State 70, York College 42. Tashana Watson had nine points and five rebounds and Shayna Priestley added eight points and four rebounds for York (3-7).
Nassau Community College 65, Queensborough 32. Aisha Nichols had 13 points and four rebounds and Priscilla Ramey added 12 points and eight assists for Nassau (1-0, 1-0 Region XV) while Queensborough (0-1, 0-1) was led by Jennifer Porazzo’s game-high 21 points.
Men’s basketball
Nassau Community College 104, Queensborough 77. Freshman guard Joe McDonald had 23 points, including 4-of-7 from three-point range, Chris Grant added 10 points and 13 assists and Stephen Drury and Craig Banton had eight boards apiece for Nassau (10-3, 6-2 Region XV). Queensborough (1-9, 0-7) was led by Herman Vanegas’ 25 points.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
