By Simon Chen
Heading into the second-to-last week of the regular season, playoff berths and seeding have been on most of the minds of the teams in the Brooklyn “A” East Division. Teams like Telecommunications, Midwood, and Sheepshead Bay are all locks for a playoff berth but seeding in the “A” bracket are still pending. For the Yellow Jackets of Telecommunications, their perfect and undefeated season is out the window as they were upended by the Tilden Blue Devils, last Friday on their home floor, 65-62. Despite being upended, they still hold the position of being on top of the division, with a 15-1 record for the year. Both the Midwood Hornets and the Sheepshead Bay Sharks went 2-for-2 in this week’s games to stay within a respectable distance of the leading Jackets. The Sharks are sitting in second place with a 14-2 record, a mere one game behind the Jackets, while the Hornets are in third with a 13-3 record, a game behind Sheepshead Bay and two games behind Telecommunications. In the playoff picture for this division as of now, the Fort Hamilton Tigers and the Tilden Blue Devils have clinched a playoff berth. Both have a 9-7 record. The New Utrecht Utes, currently sitting 8-8, will need to win at least one game to clinch a playoff spot. New Utrecht has upcoming games against Midwood and Lafayette, with both games at the Utes’ home court. Not only did the Yellow Jackets suffer their first loss of the season, on a brighter note the Lafayette Patriots won their first game of the year by beating FDR, 70-66, last Wednesday at home. With the one victory at hand, the Patriots are 1-15, still in the cellar of the division. Despite playing inconsistent basketball, the Fort Hamilton Tigers were able to play pound-for-pound with the division leading Telecommunications Yellow Jackets. In the first quarter, the Tigers immediately jumped out to a 16-15 lead and they would continue to press in the second by posting 11 more points to lead at the half by four, 27-23 over Telecommunications. But the Yellow Jackets, with their relentless sting, came out of the halftime break and scored 18 third-quarter points to lead by two 41-39 at the end of 24 minutes of play. In the fourth quarter, the Yellow Jackets dominated play and took over the game by posting a 21-spot and destroying the Tigers with an 11-point victory at Fort Hamilton’s home floor. Leading the Yellow Jackets were a pair of great performances. Center-forward Nikita Davis scored 20 points, snagged down 10 rebounds, and dealt out two assists. Forward Rasak Bello contributed 20 points, 12 rebounds and one assist. In the lost cause, Tigers’ guard Tarik Alassari added 23 points, eight rebounds, and four assists. With the loss, the Tigers were demoted to 8-7 with three games to play while the Yellow Jackets improved their undefeated record to 15-0 on the season. In the game of the week for the “A” East Division, the Sharks and the Hornets locked horns at 12-2, both tied for second place and two games behind the Yellow Jackets. In the first quarter, the Hornets jumped out to a quick 18-12 lead over the Sharks. They would eventually increase their lead to ten by posting a 12 spot and they headed to the locker room with a 30-20 lead. Feeling the game quickly slipping out of their hands, the Sharks took a bite into the Hornets by scoring 22 points. At the end of three quarters of play, the Sharks led by three, 42-39, heading into the fourth. Despite allowing 12 fourth-quarter points, the Sharks were still able to claim victory over the Hornets. Leading the Sharks was forward Kendall George, who has averaged only three points per game this entire season. George scored 15 and had five rebounds and two assists this afternoon. In the lost cause, the Hornets were led by forward Kevin Henry, who scored 17 points and had five rebounds. The loss dealt the Hornets a major blow for the division title, as they fall to 12-3 and into third place. The Sharks improved to a 13-2 record and sit alone in second place, two games out of first place. New Utrecht Utes’ guard/forward Amr Red Salem has averaged 11.94 points per game this season. He would post 21 to defeat the Blue Devils by 17 at Tilden. Salem would finish his afternoon by adding six rebounds and three assists. The Utes took complete control of this game by outscoring the Blue Devils in each of the four quarters of play. Despite having their leading point scorer sidelined, the Blue Devils bench only had one guy in double figures while ten players scored in the single digits. The Utes improved to 8-7 while the Blue Devils fall to 8-7. Both fall into a tie for fifth place in the division. The Lafayette Patriots have lost 14 consecutive games and their last win was against the Madison Knights on February 10, 2006 at home. Their first win would come three months into the season against another “cellar” team, the FDR Cougars at home. The Patriots jumped out to a 17-16 lead at the end of the first, but quickly gave it back, as they allowed 16 FDR points to knot the game at 32 going into the half. In the third quarter, the Cougars scored 17 points to jump ahead by two, 49-47, at the start of the final quarter of play. In the fourth quarter, the Patriots came out and played their best quarter of the season. They posted a 23 spot to eventually lift them past FDR and claim their first victory of the season. In the lost cause, the Cougars were led by a pair of strong performances by Tomasz Kurpiewski and Steven Sharrers. Kurpiewski scored 18 points, pulled down nine rebounds, and dealt out six assists. Sharrers contributed 18 points, five rebounds, and a lone assist. With the victory, the Patriots improved to a remarkable 1-14 while the Cougars dropped to 3-12 for the season. The Erasmus Hall Dutchmen were 3-4 in the month of January coming into this game. They finished the month on a high note by defeating Madison by two at home. The Dutchmen were led by forward/center Rashad Danzy, who has only averaged 10.33 points per game this entire season, scored 23 points, pulled down 18 rebounds, and dealt out four assists. In the losing cause, the Knights were led by guard Marvin Joseph, who contributed 13 points, four rebounds, and five assists of his own for the afternoon. With the victory, the Dutchmen closed out January with a .500 record at 4-4 and go 4-11 on the campaign. With the loss, the Knights dipped to 3-12 for the season. The Sheepshead Bay Sharks kept on pace with the Telecommunications Yellow Jackets with a six-point victory over the Utes at New Utrecht. The Sharks were led by guard Tyrell Faulcon, who scored 14 points, snagged down five rebounds, and dished out five assists on the afternoon. The Sharks started slow as they only scored four first-quarter points but quickly erased that by posting 23 third-quarter points to drop New Utrecht to their third loss in four games. Despite the loss, the Utes are still alive for a playoff spot, as they currently sit 8-8 in the division. A win in any of their next two games will clinch a playoff spot for the Utes. With the victory, the Sharks improve to 14-2 for the season and sit only one game behind the Yellow Jackets, who are 15-1 for the year. The Telecommunications Yellow Jackets haven’t lost a single basketball game since March 2, 2006 when they played Wadleigh in the playoffs and lost 73-63 on the road. But this time they were upended at home by the Tilden Blue Devils by three. The jackets jumped out to their usual first quarter lead. But it wasn’t by much — 11-10 — at the end of eight minutes of play. Then in the second quarter, the Blue Devils took control of the game by scoring 17 and went into halftime with the lead, 27-24. After the half, the Jackets took control of this toss and turned the battle by going on a 23-point three quarter scoring spree and went up by eight, 47-39 at the end of three quarters of play. In the fourth quarter, Tilden eclipsed the Jackets by smothering and torching the defense for 26 unanswered points to eventually lead them to a three-point victory. Leading Tilden was guard/center Frances Antoine, who has only averaged 13.50 per game this season. He torched the bees for 18 points and eight rebounds. Giving another impressive Tilden performance was forward/guard Javon Jackman, who contributed 13 points and six assists of his own on the afternoon. With the major upset, the Blue Devils improved their record to 9-7 and have two more to plays, Sheepshead Bay and Midwood, to close out the regular season. Te Yellow Jackets fall to 15-1 with two more to play, Lafayette and Sheepshead Bay. Since the Jackets lost, Midwood and Sheepshead Bay are still both alive to win the division title. Despite both Midwood and Sheepshead Bay winning, the Jackets are still the “odds-on” favorite to win this division. The Midwood Hornets keep on rolling with a huge win against the Knights at Madison. With the win, Midwood keeps to pace in the chase for a division title. The Hornets were led by guard/forward Adalet Canovic, who has averaged 8.88 points per game the entire season, racked up 17 points, six rebounds, and a lone assist. Giving another impressive performance was forward Gregory Noel, who netted 17 points and snagged down 20 rebounds. In the lost cause, the Knights were led by guard Marvin Joseph, who contributed 15 points and five rebounds for the afternoon. With the victory, the Hornets improved their record to 13-3, two games behind the division-leading Yellow Jackets and just a single game behind the Sheepshead Bay Sharks, who are 14-2. The Hornets still have two games to play, with match-ups against New Utrecht and Tilden. Midwood needs to win two games and have Sheepshead Bay and Telecommunications lose two straight in order to get into a two- or three-way tie for the division crown. The loss drops the Knights to a disappointing 3-13 record for the season.
