By Robert Elkin
Last November, Bishop Ford’s varsity basketball coach John Infortunio knew that they had a lot of talent and ability and the possibility of being a very good team in the Catholic High Schools Athletic Association. But he didn’t expect his team to go as far as it did. However, it happened. The Falcons, after winning the Class ‘A’ CHSAA city-wide or intersectional championship, advanced to the semi-finals of the New York State Federation Tournament in Glens Falls, NY, only to come home on the short end of a 77-66 score at the expense of Long Island Lutheran last Friday evening. The Falcons thus concluded a very successful season with an amazing overall record of 23-6. “It’s extremely overwhelming what these kids have been able to accomplish,” Infortunio said. “I’m very proud of them and how they handled themselves on and off the court.” Lutheran tried to defend all-city candidate Chaz Williams, but the junior guard still managed to score 26 points. After the score was tied at half time, 36-36, the Falcons took a seven-point advantage going into the fourth quarter. Then Lutheran outscored the locals 25-14 to advance into the finals. “In the fourth quarter they [Lutheran] threw defensive looks at us,” Infortunio said. “They threw some traps and tried to trap Chaz a little bit as he got the ball over half court. Then they played off [him] and trapped corners and wings. We substituted Don Marbury throughout the game to keep our guys fresh because we played on a big court.” Lutheran played better defense than Ford did and put pressure on whoever caught the ball in the fourth quarter. The Falcons called a couple of time outs. The Falcons overall committed nine turnovers in the last quarter, alone, while Lutheran hit a lot of their shots, including those from the outside, toward the end. “They forced our defense to really get out and we had to extend our defense quite a bit,” Infortunio said. “We really gave a couple of different looks on a couple of their shooters….It pulled us out and stretched us.” Tyrik Tucker tallied 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds and six-foot Lorenzo Brown took down a game high of 11 caroms to led the Falcons. Still all eyes were focused on Williams, who concluded a very successful junior season. On track to his 1,000th career point at Ford, the guard returns next September along with Brown, Collin Nurse and Dylan Henry. Nurse must get a little stronger and work on ‘back to the basket stuff.’ Henry should be among the starting five and has to work on medium range jump shooting. Brown, the defensive stopper, has to be more of an offensive threat. When the game was over, Infortunio told his players that he wasn’t at all disappointed in losing. “If I used the word ‘disappointed’ it would take away everything they did accomplish,” the coach said. The players were extremely proud of themselves and represented everybody and the school extremely well all this year. “I was very impressed with the way that they came together as a group,” Infortunio added. “The leaders – Chaz and Tyrik – stepped up both on and off the court. It was an incredible run and there should be more good things to come with the potential that we have coming up.” All three teams at Bishop Ford played for city championships. The Freshmen defeated Stepinac in the championship game and the Junior Varsity lost to Mount St. Michael. The Falcons with the holdovers and players from the Junior Varsity should be in good shape for net season and make another impact in the league. Tucker, Jermaine Braumuller, Andre Robinson, and Don Marbury will be graduating in June.
