Sports

SHEEPSHEAD BAY SHOCKS LINCOLN

The popular belief around the PSAL was that this season would be little more than a formality as Lincoln marched to its third straight title.

Sheepshead Bay didn’t share that opinion.

“We wanted to show them that we could give them a game,” Sheepshead Bay coach Roy Steinbach said. “If we kept it close, then we thought we’d have a chance.”

The Sharks did more than keep it close, beating the Railsplitters 68-57 yesterday in front of a frenzied crowd at Sheepshead Bay. Both teams are 6-1 in the PSAL Brooklyn I-A. It was Lincoln’s first regular-season PSAL loss since Jan. 5, 2001, to Grady.

“They came to see Telfair, but we gave them something else,” Steinbach said of Lincoln’s standout point guard Sebastian Telfair, who began the game on the bench in street clothes, still recovering from the sprained ankle he suffered when the Railsplitters beat nationally ranked Edgewater (Fla.) last Thursday on ESPN2.

But with the game still close at the half – Lincoln led by three – the senior point guard insisted on playing.

“He played, but he wasn’t well at all,” said Lincoln coach Dwayne Morton, whose team – with a healthy Telfair – is still the best team in the league. “He wasn’t the same player he usually is. I ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^said that he couldn’t go in, but he wanted it so much that he wouldn’t listen.”

By then, Sheepshead Bay had proven it could compete with Lincoln and rode the strong inside play of Stephen Jackson to the shocking upset. Jackson led the way with 34 points and 17 rebounds, while Sean Watson added 16 points, enough to offset Telfair’s unexpected appearance.

“I couldn’t believe he came out to play,” Steinbach said. “I didn’t think he would. I felt like I was watching Willis Reed come out.”

Telfair, however, couldn’t do enough to inspire Lincoln to victory as Reed did the Knicks in the NBA Finals.

And while the outcome was stunning to many, it wasn’t to Steinbach and his players.

“We had confidence in ourselves and understood that we couldn’t run with them the whole time,” Steinbach said. “We picked our spots and got them out of their game.”