Hawks soar into first

When the buzzer sounded, the party started.
Moments after Hillcrest’s dominant 76-58 victory over previously undefeated Newtown, a win that pushed them into first place, their entire team celebrated in euphoric fashion.
However, this was not just any celebration; it was a championship-like celebration without a trophy, one that went on for several minutes. The team took group photos. Players hopped onto each other’s backs and mugged for cameras holding up one finger to signify their standing.
“It went longer than I thought,” said junior Patrick Parker, who led the Hawks with 16 points.
“They really wanted to beat Newtown,” Hillcrest Coach Cally Prasinos said. “They were really pumped up for this game. We were ready for them.”
The extended aftermath was a release for Hillcrest, a talented team that had lost their last five games to division leaders. On December 12, they fell to John Adams by two, but with the Spartans one-point loss to Jamaica, now command Queens A-West. Last year, four close defeats to Adams and Thomas Edison cost the Hawks the division, and a spot in the borough playoffs.
The dominant victory over Newtown moves them ever closer. Making the victory that much more impressive was its nature. The Pioneers were never in the game. They trailed by double digits throughout; the final quarter was garbage time.
“That’s motivation,” Parker said of last season. “We’re trying to go all the way this year. We don’t want that to happen two years in a row.”
“This year,” he guaranteed, “we’re playing in the boros.”
If the Hawks can continue to play at such a level, they will be dangerous, just like Edison, who moved up to Queens AA this year and won the Queens crown last March.
Parker led Hillcrest in scoring against Newtown, and he is their lone player who averages double digits, at 11 points per game.
But it is a different Hawk almost every night. Mamoudou Dioubate, Rafael Delmonte, Lamont Cardwell and Wilson Tenorio average between seven and eight points per game.
“Whoever’s producing,” Parker said, “it’s his night to score.”
Beyond balanced scoring and an unselfish team that boasts just six returning players, Hillcrest is led by second-year coach Cally Prasinos, one of two female varsity coaches in the city (the other being Ruth Lovelace of Boys & Girls).
The Queens College graduate and third all-time leading scorer and rebounder at the Flushing school, allows no slacking off. Anyone who is late to practice or misses a class - starter or reserve, freshman or senior - is suspended for a game. No attitude is tolerated.
“She’s doing it for us to get to college, not for us to play basketball, not for us to win,” Parker said.
Well, at least part of it is for them to win. Moreover, whatever Prasinos is doing is working.
In two years, she has accumulated a 20-6 mark. This year, a spiffy record is not enough. Prasinos wants to challenge the best in Queens.
With that in mind, the Hawks scrimmaged Cardozo, Lincoln and Archbishop Molloy and faced Campus Magnet in a holiday tournament. With Edison just down the street, it is impossible to ignore last winter’s achievement.
“Absolutely, everybody wants that opportunity,” she said. “I don’t know if we are going to do the same thing they did, but we’re sure hoping for it.”