Boys basketball is usually the sport that garners all the attention at Campus Magnet. Not this March.
With the boys team bowing out in the second round, the girls have taken center stage, advancing to the PSAL Class B final this Saturday at St. John’s after topping Food & Finance High School, 43-38, in overtime.
Senior Jaleesa Gordon led the Bulldogs (21-2) with a game-high 19 points and sophomore Nicole McCall added 14, including the 3-pointer that forced overtime. “We knew we could do it,” Gordon said. “Our mindset was to go all the way. It’s crazy. My first two years, we won only five games. … It’s very exciting. I’m out of words. I’m just proud of the team.”
The summer prior to her junior year the team started playing A.A.U. basketball as the Silver Bullets, forming chemistry that was lacking. “We worked hard in the summer, we played a lot of tough teams that helped us out,” she said. “Everyone came together.”
The Catholic League AA city final was nearly an all-Queens affair. Holy Cross led St. Raymond’s by 19 in the second half, 17 at halftime, only to blow the lead and the game, 79-78. Guard Sylven Landesberg led them with 28 points and 10 rebounds.
Courtesy of their Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan championship, the Flushing school’s first since 1978, the Knights’ season isn’t over yet - they will meet Rice in the Catholic state semifinals Friday night.
“It was disappointing because I thought we played well in the first half,” Holy Cross Coach Paul Gilvary said. “In the third quarter, we started to get out of sync and just lost our composure. We started to make plays that No. 1 weren’t there, and No. 2 were unnecessary.”
After St. Raymond’s (16-12) Daryl Bryant sank two free throws with 8.8 seconds remaining, the Knights (21-8) never got the ball to the rim. They tried to rush up and get Landesberg a shot for the Ravens swarmed him and the ball was swung around the perimeter. “We wound up out of position,” Gilvary said. “We should’ve called a timeout when things didn’t look good.”
In PSAL Class A action, John Adams and Edison, who tied for the Queens A-West crown, have each reached the semifinals. The No. 2 Engineers, the Queens champs, topped seventh-seeded Sheepshead Bay, 51-45, at St. John’s Saturday afternoon, their 17th straight win against PSAL competition.
Allan Thomas, Gregory Steele and Devin Brown each scored 10 points. They will meet No. 6 Curtis in the semis. Adams, meanwhile, upset No. 4 Gompers, 39-36. Terrell Simmons led the twelfth-seeded Spartans with 12 points and Robert Gutierrez added 11.
