Lewis earns unlikely division title

Mike Eisenberg set modest goals for Francis Lewis at the beginning of the season. “Every day we said the same thing: ‘Let’s get better in practice today, individually and as a team,’ and I think the kids understood that,” the coach said after the Patriots clinched the Queens AA division Friday with a 67-42 win over Boys & Girls in Brooklyn.
Off the bat, expectations were considerably lower for Francis Lewis, for years the borough’s public school juggernaut. They had reached the city championship five of the last six seasons, albeit losing each time to Murry Bergtraum, the eight-time defending champs.
But they entered this campaign with just one returning starter - point guard Sylvia Davis - having graduated three girls now playing Division I college basketball. The year before, two others exited the Fresh Meadows school.
“It really did take us a whole year to start to play well,” Eisenberg said. “We were really not a good team at the start of the season. We really needed to figure out what we were trying to do.”
The turnaround began at home against Cardozo on January 17. At the time, the Patriots, who were blitzed by the Judges, 53-22, earlier in the year, were just 5-4 in league play, and closer to third place than first. A 75-68 triple overtime win, led by Davis’s 18 points and nine assists and 17 from sophomore forward Andree De Leon, ignited a late-season surge of four league wins in five tries. The only loss, a narrow 54-48 setback, during that time, came to Brooklyn power Midwood, who is seeded fifth in the upcoming playoffs.
The postseason is far different for Francis Lewis (14-9, 9-5 Queens AA) this time around - instead of a top seed, they begin on the road as No. 9, visiting South Shore, Eisenberg’s alma mater. But earning another division crown in a season when one wasn’t supposed to be in the cards is reason enough to celebrate.
“I think in a lot of ways it is more rewarding,” Eisenberg said of this season, “because not much was expected of us. The talent level - we don’t have three or four Division I-caliber players on the team at one time, obviously. We had to do a lot more of teaching the game of basketball than coaching the game of basketball.”