By Will Sammon
Justin Wright-Foreman collided with another player as he went strong to the rim for a layup, fell to the floor underneath the basket and immediately clutched his wrist.
The Construction senior guard was fouled hard and stayed down for several seconds. When he finally got up, he grimaced, shook his wrist and then grimaced again.
He was clearly in pain, but wasn’t about to let that discomfort stop him. After all, this was with only about four minutes left to play and his team was down by three points in the borough final.
“I had to do something there to get us riled up, no matter what,” Wright-Foreman said. “Even though I felt my hand twist and my wrist felt sprained, I had to do something after that. I had to fight through that.”
He did.
Wright-Foreman scored nine of Construction’s final 15 points during the final four minutes as the Red Hawks secured a thrilling come-from-behind win over defending city champion Cardozo, 71-63, Saturday in the PSAL Queens boys’ basketball borough final at Queens College. It’s the second straight season Construction beat the Judges in the title game. The loss could cost Cardozo the top seed in the upcoming city playoffs.
Wright-Foreman, a Hofstra-commit, scored 17 of his game-high 27 points in the second half to propel Construction to the win.
“He’s the best scorer in New York City,” Construction guard Kyle Allman said. “Hands down.”
Allman wasn’t too bad a scorer himself. He finished with 22 points and made four straight free throws to provide the game’s final eight-point margin.
“I stay calm. I don’t listen to anyone in the crowd,” Allman said. “I’m in my zone.”
Was he as composed when Cardozo— which had beat Construction twice in the teams’ two previous meetings — led by 13 at halftime?
“It was lopsided then,” Allman said, “but we’re built for these type of games. The fourth quarter is our quarter. We always show up when there’s a sense of urgency.”
The Judges (24-2) were led by Tareq Coburn’s 25 points and dominated on the boards early on and were hitting shots consistently from the outside. Allman believed his team wasn’t playing hard enough on defense before the break.
That all changed.
Right at the start of the third quarter, the Red Hawks (22-5) started to allow fewer offensive rebounds. Loose balls were hustled after. Shots were contested. Construction cut the halftime deficit to five by the end of the third.
When Wright-Foreman suffered the hard foul in the fourth quarter, he missed the first free throw attempt, but then hit the second to get Construction to within 61-59. Reserve guard Jordan Wright, who played well when the Red Hawks got in foul trouble in the fourth, made a pull-up jumper from the right elbow to tie the score at 61-61.
Then Wright-Foreman made a layup. Twenty seconds later, he made another. One minute after that, he made another for his third straight basket as Construction pulled away.
“Everybody thought we were going to lose this game,” Wright-Foreman said. “It feels great just to overcome all of that.”
Now, what about that wrist?
“It’s fine,” Wright-Foreman said. “I’m just going to get it looked at.”
It appeared healthy enough when he raised both arms in celebration after the game.
