By Simon Chen
A new and familiar face sits in first place — the Lincoln Railsplitters with a huge divisional win against Boys & Girls lifted them to first place bragging rights. Despite only sitting there with a half game lead, Lincoln has only one game remaining against the Falcons at Grady. While Boys & Girls has two games remaining with Canarsie and Jefferson, the division title still hangs in the balance. If Lincoln wins against Grady, they will improve to 13-1 which forces Boys & Girls to win two consecutive games, which makes them 13-1, this will deadlock them for the division title. If the Kangaroos drop only one game, that will mean a Lincoln division crown. But, if Lincoln drops the game to Banneker, Boys & Girls will need to win two straight for the title. South Shore, who currently sits in fourth place with 6-7 record, needs a victory against Grady for a playoff berth. On the other hand, the Jefferson Orange Wave, 5-7 and in fifth place, will need two victories for a playoff clincher. But that road wouldn’t come easy with a game against Boys & Girls and possibly an easy victory against Banneker. As the teams continue to jockey for playoff seeding, nothing is decided in the “AA” Division. With the last week of the regular season just upon us, interesting playoff-affecting games will definitely come into play. In the game of the week, and possibly the year, the Boys & Girls Kangaroos and the Lincoln Railsplitters faced off in a divisional battle for the rights of owning first place. Not only did this match up have the likes of Lincoln’s star guard/forward Lance Stephneson and Boys & Girls’ guard Frederick Nixon but a divison title was hanging in the wind. Lincoln had a quick start by posting 20 in the first quarter and jumped out to a quick 20-9 lead. In the second quarter, they posted another 18 to lead, at the half, 38-29. The third and fourth quarters were no different, as the Railsplitters added 26 in each of the last eight minutes of play. The Railsplitters were led by guard/forward Lance Stephenson, who scored 30 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists. With another impressive Railsplitter performance was forward Justin Greene, who posted a 14 point, nine rebound, and three assist day. In the lost cause for Boys & Girls, they were led by guard Clayton Sterling, who has averaged a little more than six points throughout the season, scored 26, snagged down five rebounds, and dealt out three assists. While guard Frederick Nixon, punched in with 14 points and five rebounds. Meanwhile, Kangaroos’ guard Kendall Cutler contributed 15 points, seven rebounds, and eight assists of his own. With the win, the Railsplitters sit alone atop the division with a 11-1 record while the Kangaroos drop into second place with a 10-1 record, a mere half game behind Lincoln. Despite the loss, Boys & Girls are far away from losing out on the division title but their chances were dealt with a major blow. Despite trailing in the first quarter, 10-9, the Canarsie Chiefs played their strongest basketball in the next three quarters to thump the Vikings. Although they only scored single digit point total in the first eight minutes of play, in the next three quarters they posted a combined 53 points. In the lost cause for the Vikes, they were led by forward/center Kante Salif, who scored 15 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. With the victory, the Chiefs improved to 8-3 while South Shore drops their record to 5-6 with two games to play. The Vikings has playoff implications in their next two games with match ups against Lincoln and Grady. Despite dropping this game, South Shore is very much alive for a playoff berth at season’s end. In the battle of the “cellar” teams in the division, the Grady Falcons and Banneker Warriors, both teams are fighting to keep themselves away from the bottom of a stellar division. Last time that these two teams met, the Falcons needed an overtime session to power past the Warriors, 75-74 at Grady on December 14. But this game would need no overtime session to decide the victor as Grady delegated Banneker to their 10th consecutive loss. Leading the Falcons was guard Tyief Thompson, who scored 19 points, snagged down two rebounds, and dealt out three assists. With the win, the Falcons improves to 4-8 while the lowly Warriors are a lowly 1-10 record. The Railsplitters captured first place like a “bull in a china shop” by storming Boys & Girls on Tuesday and they wouldn’t relent any ground as they powered their way past the Vikings with a 23 point win at South Shore. With a strong another performance by Railsplitters’ guard/forward Lance Stephenson, who posted 29 points, eight rebounds, and six assists in the victory. In the lost cause, South Shore’s forward/guard Sharif Mohammed, netted 16 points and had five rebounds. With the loss, the South Shore Vikings are dealt with a 6-7 record. Although they are still in the playoff hunt, they would need a crucial win on the February 6th game against the Falcons at Grady to have a shot at clinching a playoff berth. Despite dropping a crucial game to Lincoln, on Tuesday, the Kangaroos are reeling from loosing their division lead and slipping into second place in over two months. Feeling the heat of loosing the division title, Boys & Girls came out firing on all cylinders by scoring 38-first half points and led by 10 at the half, 38-28. In the second half, the Kangaroos just eliminated and dominated the competition by posting 16 points in the third quarter and 32 points in the fourth quarter to power their way to a slaughtering of the Warriors on the road. The Kangaroos were led by center Wayne Allsion, who scored 19 points and had 19 rebounds. With another impressive performance, Boys & Girls’ guard Kevin Mills contributed 17 points, 10 rebounds, and two assists in the victory. The Kangaroos, still sit in second place with a 11-1 record, a half game behind Lincoln, who were victors against South Shore. The Warriors are dealt with their 11th consecutive loss and drops to a dismal 1-11 record. Despite having more than three weeks off, the Jefferson Orange Wave put up a great fight against Canarsie but a late push just wasn’t enough to power them through as the Chiefs win by two at Jefferson. In the first quarter, Canarsie posted 23 points in the first eight of play to go up by seven, 23-16. In the second, the Orange Wave wiped out the defense by scoring 26 to close the deficit and tie the game at 42 a piece at the half. Inspired by their second quarter play, the Orange Wave posted a 22 spot to lead 64-55 at the end of three quarters. Showing that they are a playoff caliber team, the Chiefs stormed back by posting a 23 spot to eventually go up by two and win the ball game. Despite having no shot at the divisional crown, the Chiefs bolstered their seeding by improving their record to 9-3 while the Wave drops to 5-7 with two games to play as their playoff hopes are dealt with a major blow. Although the Wave’s playoff chances are not completely gone, the next two games are with Boys & Girls and Banneker, both on the road. The road getting to .500 for the Wave might be tough to get with a key match up against a streaking Boys & Girls team.
