By Stephen Zitolo
Cardozo is moving on in its quest for back-to-back PSAL city championships, but not without hitting a few bumps in the road.
In a game where offense was not at a premium, the No. 2 seeded Judges defeated No. 7 George Westinghouse 41-28 in the PSAL Class AA boys’ quarterfinals at Lehman College Saturday.
“Our shots weren’t falling early,” Cardozo’s junior guard Rashond Salnave said. “We just had to keep believing in each other. We knew our shots were going to fall sooner or later. The more we shot the more they went in.”
Both teams played sloppy offense in the first quarter, but the mistakes didn’t lead to any points. Cardozo led just 10-5. In the second quarter, both teams scored a combined total of eight points as Cardozo went on a 6-0 run, capped off by a layup from junior guard Tareq Coburn, to end the half with a 16-7 lead.
“We’ve hit a little bit of a slump late in the season,” Cardozo head coach Ron Naclerio said. “We didn’t shoot well against Bowne, we shot worse against Francis Lewis, we had a terrible second half against Construction and last game we shot 22-for-54.”
Westinghouse used a 9-0 to start to tie the score at 16-16 in the third quarter. Cardozo wouldn’t score its first basket in the second half until the 2:07 mark of the third quarter, but somehow found a way to still lead 22-19 going into the game’s final quarter.
Cardozo’s big game experience finally took over as it outscored Westinghouse 19-9 in the fourth to secure the victory and a spot in the semifinals. Naclerio acknowledged the offensive struggles of his team, but was happy with the way his defense has been stepping up,
“If you talk about the last six quarters we’ve only given up a total of 47 points, so hopefully that will continue,” he said.
Salnave paced Cardozo with 12 points and senior guard Richard Knowlin led Westinghouse with eight points. Cardozo faces No. 6 seed Boys and Girls team in the semifinals 3 p.m. March 7 at Lehman College after the Kangaroos upset Lincoln.
“I respect Boys & Girls,” Naclerio said. “After the obvious first four seeds I feel they are right there with Construction.”
Wings 85, Construction 58: Construction didn’t have any answers for Wings points guard Desure Buie. The senior and Hofstra University-bound guard had a career night with 42 points and nine three-pointers in the PSAL boy’s basketball quarterfinals
“Desure is a heck of a player,” Construction’s Hofstra-bound and senior guard Justin Wright-Foreman said.
Construction immediately got its fans into the game as Wright-Foreman was found for an alley-oop dunk on the first possession. Wings quickly took the wind out of Construction’s sails and went on a 10-0 spree that seemed to level the confidence of the Red Hawks.
“Once it was 10-2, as a team we just weren’t together,” Wright-Foreman said. “We didn’t amount to what we could’ve done today.”
Wings continued to pour it on in the first half as Buie had seven three-pointers for 27 total points. At the break Wings led 48-23.
Construction was able to slow Buie down somewhat in the second half as he only had 15 points. But Buie was garnering so much of the defensive’s focus that it opened up lanes for the rest of his teammates. The Red Hawks trailed 71-34 after three.
Wright-Foreman led construction with 17 points and Jordan Wright pitched in with 11. Construction may have lost in the quarterfinals for the second straight season, but Semper was optimistic and proud of the season his team had. “We had a great run and there’s nothing anyone can take away from us,” Semper said.
