By Dylan Butler
It was the one matchup Cardozo girls’ basketball coach Larry Carradine was concerned about heading into the Queens Borough Championship game last Thursday.
And as he soon learned, he had good reason to be worried.
Led by 6-foot-3 center Jessica Fuller, who recorded her third triple-double of the year, Francis Lewis exploited its huge size advantage down low to cruise to a 57-47 victory at Elmcor, clinching its third consecutive borough title.
Fuller was unstoppable down low on both ends of the court. The highly touted junior had 16 points, 10 rebounds and 12 blocks, and 5-foot-11 Dawn Coleman added 14 points and six rebounds for Francis Lewis (23-4), which clinched its third straight borough title and the No. 2 seed in the PSAL playoffs behind five-time champion Murry Bergtraum.
“They have the outside shooters; their big kids can finish and we couldn’t get anything inside because they must have blocked 10 shots,” Carradine said. “They’re big, we’re small and we have to play a very good game and they have to have a so-so game for us to take them.”
Lewis’ formidable frontcourt, featuring Fuller, Coleman and 5-foot-10 Alaina Davis, not only proved to be a problem for Cardozo but for just about every other team in the PSAL, Francis Lewis coach Mike Eisenberg said.
“We may be the biggest team in the public school system, our starting lineup, anyway,” he said. “One of the strengths we have is that we’re big and strong and athletic up front. It’s a way that we’ve beaten a lot of teams this year.”
Getting out to a good start is something Eisenberg stressed before the game, and the Patriots responded by racing to a 17-3 lead and then went on a 14-2 run to start the second half to take a commanding 44-21 lead.
“Our biggest problem was starting games,” said Jasmin Lawrence, who had 17 points and six assists. “We can’t wait to play a complete game; we have to do it now.”
But Lewis didn’t put away Cardozo (16-9) when it had the chance and the Judges crawled back into the game, led by Britni Bolden (14 points) and Marissa Flagg (11 points).
“There are different goals for different teams, and our goal is to play for the city championship,” Eisenberg said. “We need to be better to do that.”
Francis Lewis will play either No. 15 McKee/Staten Island Tech or 18th-seeded Clinton while No. 8 Cardozo hosts 25th-seeded Stuyvesant in a first-round game scheduled for Wednesday.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
