The rivalry between John F. Kennedy and Manhattan Center is as heated as any in the city – think the Hatfields versus the McCoys and the Montagues versus the Capulets in basketball jerseys and high-top sneakers.
There’s no love lost between the players or the coaches and every time the two teams step on the court it’s a hotly contested, edge-of-your-seat, down-to-the-wire type of game.
Except for Monday.
Kennedy took all the drama out of things in the third quarter and commenced a second-half beating on Manhattan Center, resulting in a 57-37 victory in a PSAL Bronx/Manhattan AA crossover girls basketball game in front of a raucous, packed crowd in East Harlem.
“This is our first time beating them by so many points in this building,” Kennedy coach O’Neil Glenn said. “It’s always tough playing them in here.”
It was tough for every second of a rock ’em, sock ’em first half. Kennedy (5-3, 4-0 Bronx AA) missed 13 free throws before halftime and only led 22-19 after junior guard Joya McFarland beat the buzzer with a long 3-pointer.
The trey ended up giving the Knights a lift in an inspired third quarter. Kennedy clamped down on defense with a zone look, not allowing Manhattan Center (2-5, 2-2 Manhattan AA) to score for the final 5:16 of the third. The Knights outscored the Lady Rams, 20-5, and took a commanding 42-24 lead heading into the fourth.
It wasn’t just Kennedy’s vaunted defense either. McFarland hit two more 3-pointers in the period and Dimitria (Dyckman) Abbott knocked down back-to-back 3s to finish the third. With senior Isis Alonso and those two, the Knights have a trio of 3-point shooters, something they did not have last season with Abbott out with a torn ACL.
“That’s why we missed Dyckman so much last year, because I knew if I had her with Isis and [Danissa Smith], I knew I had three girls who could shoot,” Glenn said.
Manhattan Center got within 44-31 with 4:47 left in the fourth and had a chance to cut it to a 10-point deficit, but senior guard Kiarah Dunlap’s 3-pointer bounced off the back of the rim. Kennedy junior forward Leshauna Phinazee responded with a basket and junior guard Deaisia Acklin’s 3-point play put the Knights up 49-31, effectively ending the Lady Rams’ run.
Acklin led the way 13 points, Phinazee had 12 points, McFarland had nine and Abbott added eight for Kennedy in the impressive victory. Senior point guard Shaquaya Daniels (seven points) had a big second half distributing the ball. Janicha Diaz Carrion had 12 points and freshman Cashmir Fulcher added 10 for Manhattan Center
“It says that we came to play this season,” Acklin said of the win. “We’re ready for anyone.”
“Anyone” just happens to be 12-time defending PSAL city champion Murry Bergtraum, which comes to The Bronx on Wednesday. Glenn has never beaten the Lady Blazers in 12 years at the helm and he thinks beating Manhattan Center by 20 two days before should be a confident boost for his team. But the coach doesn’t think his team would have won Monday if it was playing the national powerhouse.
“We gotta play better against a team like Bergtraum,” Glenn said. “We need girls understanding their roles a little better. There are two or three girls who I’m expecting more from. If they start understanding their roles, we’ll be a complete team.”