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Amazing Grace: Sophomore leads Jefferson past Boys in OT
By Zachary Braziller January 16, 2009
Joel (Air Jamaica) Wright scored 30 points and grabbed 21 rebounds for Thomas Jefferson.
Thirty minutes of basketball had been played. There were numerous lead changes and momentum shifts, questionable foul calls that drew each side’s ire and back-and-forth chants.
Davontay Grace was on the court the entire time. Yet through it all, the only time he stood out was by blocking a shot, not the sophomore’s forte. He was credited with just two points – 10 below his average – on a pull-up jumpshot early in the first quarter.
Then, like a flipping on a light switch it all changed, for the talented guard and Thomas Jefferson.
First was a pretty scoop high off the glass, the ball nestling cleanly through the hoop to bring the Orange Wave within three, 64-61, with two minutes left. Thirty seconds later, he added a free throw to cut the Boys & Girls’ lead to four. And a minute later, with two seconds on the clock, he got Jefferson even, hunting down Keith Spellman’s miss and softly dropping in a baby jumper on the right wing to force overtime.
Only that was just the appetizer, a precursor to the main course. He scored Jefferson’s first 10 points of the extra session, almost singlehandedly willing them to victory in a scintillating, 87-79 win at Boys & Girls in PSAL Brooklyn AA boys' basketball Thursday. It was the second straight time the Orange Wave have left the Bed Stuy gym, a tough place to play, victorious after winning there in last season’s playoffs.
“I like playing in front of this kind of crowd,” said Grace, who also had 14 assists and finished with 17 extremely important points. “It reminds me of our crowd. I don’t get nervous.”
Apparently not.
He didn’t flinch when the rebound came to him off the Spellman miss, simply going back up with it. And when Spellman fouled out early in the overtime, Grace said, he felt it was his time. He scored off the tip, ripped a baseline jumper, then a 3-pointer, his only of the evening, from the right wing, then another jumper from the same spot and capped it with a free throw.
“I was relentless,” he said.
Of course, such a display has happened before, on an even bigger stage. In last year’s PSAL Class AA quarterfinal victory over Cardozo, nearly the same scenario repeated itself. Grace carried Jefferson to victory then, too.
“When the game was on the line,” he said, “I had to be more aggressive.”
Said teammate Joel (Air Jamaica) Wright, who had 30 points and 21 rebounds: “I knew he was gonna take over.”
Anton Dickerson led Boys (11-5, 9-2 Brooklyn AA) with 18 points, Richard Brown III added 16 and Lamount Samuell Jr. had 14. Samuell, along with sophomore Mike Taylor (all 11 points in the fourth quarter), Leroy Isler and Devante Cutler, fouled out in the fourth quarter, paving the way for Jefferson’s comeback.
“Does that happen in basketball – four kids foul out in regulation?,” Boys & Girls coach Ruth Lovelace asked incredulously.
The Orange Wave (13-4, 10-1 Brooklyn AA) never wavered in their confidence in one another, not after Boys & Girls built a nine-point lead on the strength of a 13-2 first-quarter run. Not when Taylor scored eight consecutive points to steal back the lead in the fourth quarter. Not even after Brown pushed the lead to six with 2:44 remaining after hitting two free throws and the electric home crowd was chanting “You can’t beat The High.”
“I told my guys stick to the gameplan,” coach Lawrence Pollard said. “We had to play every second. Defense was the key today. Our maturity really showed. We were disciplined, we executed. Last year or the year before if we were down by seven points, we would’ve gone wacky. My guys really deserved that win.”
Jefferson now has the inside track to the Brooklyn AA crown if they can knock off Lincoln in East New York on Feb. 5. There are more tests that lay ahead, starting Saturday in Big Apple Basketball’s High School Invitational against Long Island Lutheran, continuing Monday against New Jersey power Paterson Catholic and the following weekend in the SNY Invitational where they could meet Boys & Girls in the final.
The Orange Wave certainly passed a revealing litmus test Thursday night. Spellman, the star guard, had what Pollard termed his worst game of the year, taking poor shots and committing silly fouls. There were many points where victory seemed out of reach.
“We’ve proved we’re one of the better teams in the city,” Pollard said. “Everyone says Boys & Girls is gonna go to the Garden. Everyone says Lincoln is gonna go to the Garden. We’re gonna have something to say about that.”
“We’re thinking,” he added, “championship now.”
zbraziller@fiveborosports.com
First was a pretty scoop high off the glass, the ball nestling cleanly through the hoop to bring the Orange Wave within three, 64-61, with two minutes left. Thirty seconds later, he added a free throw to cut the Boys & Girls’ lead to four. And a minute later, with two seconds on the clock, he got Jefferson even, hunting down Keith Spellman’s miss and softly dropping in a baby jumper on the right wing to force overtime.
Only that was just the appetizer, a precursor to the main course. He scored Jefferson’s first 10 points of the extra session, almost singlehandedly willing them to victory in a scintillating, 87-79 win at Boys & Girls in PSAL Brooklyn AA boys' basketball Thursday. It was the second straight time the Orange Wave have left the Bed Stuy gym, a tough place to play, victorious after winning there in last season’s playoffs.
“I like playing in front of this kind of crowd,” said Grace, who also had 14 assists and finished with 17 extremely important points. “It reminds me of our crowd. I don’t get nervous.”
Apparently not.
He didn’t flinch when the rebound came to him off the Spellman miss, simply going back up with it. And when Spellman fouled out early in the overtime, Grace said, he felt it was his time. He scored off the tip, ripped a baseline jumper, then a 3-pointer, his only of the evening, from the right wing, then another jumper from the same spot and capped it with a free throw.
“I was relentless,” he said.
Of course, such a display has happened before, on an even bigger stage. In last year’s PSAL Class AA quarterfinal victory over Cardozo, nearly the same scenario repeated itself. Grace carried Jefferson to victory then, too.
“When the game was on the line,” he said, “I had to be more aggressive.”
Said teammate Joel (Air Jamaica) Wright, who had 30 points and 21 rebounds: “I knew he was gonna take over.”
Anton Dickerson led Boys (11-5, 9-2 Brooklyn AA) with 18 points, Richard Brown III added 16 and Lamount Samuell Jr. had 14. Samuell, along with sophomore Mike Taylor (all 11 points in the fourth quarter), Leroy Isler and Devante Cutler, fouled out in the fourth quarter, paving the way for Jefferson’s comeback.
“Does that happen in basketball – four kids foul out in regulation?,” Boys & Girls coach Ruth Lovelace asked incredulously.
The Orange Wave (13-4, 10-1 Brooklyn AA) never wavered in their confidence in one another, not after Boys & Girls built a nine-point lead on the strength of a 13-2 first-quarter run. Not when Taylor scored eight consecutive points to steal back the lead in the fourth quarter. Not even after Brown pushed the lead to six with 2:44 remaining after hitting two free throws and the electric home crowd was chanting “You can’t beat The High.”
“I told my guys stick to the gameplan,” coach Lawrence Pollard said. “We had to play every second. Defense was the key today. Our maturity really showed. We were disciplined, we executed. Last year or the year before if we were down by seven points, we would’ve gone wacky. My guys really deserved that win.”
Jefferson now has the inside track to the Brooklyn AA crown if they can knock off Lincoln in East New York on Feb. 5. There are more tests that lay ahead, starting Saturday in Big Apple Basketball’s High School Invitational against Long Island Lutheran, continuing Monday against New Jersey power Paterson Catholic and the following weekend in the SNY Invitational where they could meet Boys & Girls in the final.
The Orange Wave certainly passed a revealing litmus test Thursday night. Spellman, the star guard, had what Pollard termed his worst game of the year, taking poor shots and committing silly fouls. There were many points where victory seemed out of reach.
“We’ve proved we’re one of the better teams in the city,” Pollard said. “Everyone says Boys & Girls is gonna go to the Garden. Everyone says Lincoln is gonna go to the Garden. We’re gonna have something to say about that.”
“We’re thinking,” he added, “championship now.”
zbraziller@fiveborosports.com