Cardozo Guard Shines

Vincent Scott is not the first player the opposition tries to stop when facing Cardozo. Actually, the diminutive reserve is the last one they usually have to worry about.
A junior guard, Scott is often overshadowed by the Judges’ superior talents, from 6-foot-7 swingman James Southerland, to smooth point guard Trinity Fields, to expert shooter Justin Garvin.
But Scott, the Judges will also point out, is the glue that holds them together. “To me,” Fields said, “he’s our hardest worker. He always plays the best player on the other team.”
He’s an unselfish stifling defender with a knack for the dramatic. “If it comes down to it,” Scott said, “I’ll take the big shot.” Against Campus Magnet, the very team that upset Cardozo in the borough finals a season ago, that certainly held true.
There was Scott beating the third quarter horn with a highlight reel scoop high off the glass amidst traffic. When the Bulldogs broke even, erasing a six-point fourth-quarter deficit, Scott gave Cardozo the lead for good with a jumper from the left wing. And in the final seconds he beat Keith McAllister, the hulking Campus Magnet center, to a rebound and dribbled out the clock with Cardozo hanging to a three-point lead - completing another undefeated league season for the Judges (19-3, 17-0 Queens AA) with a 65-62 win before close to 400 spectators in the raucous Cambria Heights gym.
“Vincent is a kid that hasn’t gotten any notoriety from the press and I think that bothers him,” Cardozo Coach Ron Naclerio said. “Today, he came up big.”
Of course, Scott wasn’t alone. Southerland, in perhaps is best all-around game to date, swatted eight shots, grabbed 14 rebounds and dished out six assists in addition to his team-high of 18 points. “If he could just click it on …,” said Naclerio. “He can be special.”
Rated as one of the top juniors in the area because of his unlimited range and unbelievable athleticism, Southerland has often languished in big men categories such as rebounding, defense and blocked shots. But on one play at the end of the first half, he showed just how limitless his potential could be.
After throwing the ball away under own basket - a no-no at any level - the usually mild-mannered forward came out of his shell. Southerland quickly raced over, seemingly out of nowhere, and swatted Sasha Clarida into the crowd, letting out a primal scream. “I had to get that block,” he would say later.
Fields controlled tempo throughout, adding 15 points and six assists, and Garvin tallied 12 as Cardozo regained their title as the borough’s best, although only for the moment.
The borough playoffs begin this week with the finals slated for Saturday at St. Francis College. “We want to be the King of Queens,” Southerland said.
To do so, the Judges will likely need to get through the Bulldogs one final time. Like last February, Cardozo is seeded first, Campus Magnet second. And much like a season ago, the Judges were there for the taking. The Bulldogs (17-8, 14-4 Queens AA) led by eight at one point in the first half as Cardozo sputtered on the offensive end. But the inability of their youthful roster - seniors Malachi Peay and McAllister are the lone starters back from last year’s PSAL quarterfinalist team - to force-feed their two veterans early on and down the stretch came back to bite them.
“Malachi was free a great many times,” Campus Magnet Coach Charles Granby said of the team’s leading scorer who finished with 21, “and they didn’t get him the ball. We had a chance to beat them and we let it slip by.”
“I’m upset a little bit,” the rangy forward added, “but we’re going to play them again.”