South Shore celebrates its Smartball title. (Lauren Marsh)
The Smartball Classic, a two-week, single-elimination tournament featuring the city’s top high school boys basketball program, launched Boys & Girls to city championships each of the last two years.
South Shore hopes it will do the same for them.
The Vikings won the Harlem tournament Thursday night, pulling away late from Bayside for an impressive 62-51 victory at Abraham Lincoln Playground. The Brooklyn school won five games over the two weeks, including a double overtime thriller over Catholic powerhouse Christ the King.
“It gives us a lot of momentum, confidence,” point guard Terrence Samuel said. “It shows we’re a team to be dealt with when the season comes up.”
The latest victory wasn’t nearly as hard-fought, South Shore building an 11-point lead early in the second half and ripping off an 11-0 run when the dogged Commodores had pulled even. As they had throughout the fortnight, rising seniors Samuel, Shamiek Sheppard and David Tait commanded the action at both ends.
The highly recruited Samuel was named tournament MVP after putting forth an all-encompassing floor game of seven points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Sheppard, finally healthy after missing July with a broken finger on his left hand, scored a game-high 14 points, and Tait was a factor in the paint, tallying 11 points.
It was an extremely enjoyable two weeks for Sheppard, the 6-foot-4 wing with the never-ending vertical. In that time, he took summer classes and worked on other area of his game that need improvement.
“He always plays hard, always leaves it on the floor,” said South Shore assistant coach Shawn Mark, who ran the team at Smartball. “I was very impressed with his play.”
Tyler Whitehead scored a game-high 17 points for Bayside and diminutive but effective point guard Cantrell Barker followed with 12 points, six rebounds and four steals. It was a struggle for the Commodores against bigger South Shore, which pounded them on the glass and scored a majority of its points in the paint.
“When we looked at their team and saw they only had one big, the goal was to get everything inside,” Sheppard said. “We had to hit a few jump shots to open the game up.”
After Bayside pulled even at 42 early in the fourth quarter, Mark installed pressure, which flipped the contest’s momentum. The Commodores immediately turned the ball over on their next three possessions. Mark feels the title is significant, if nothing else for his players to get used to winning. Over the last few years, talent has never been an issue with South Shore, which is coming off back-to-back PSAL Class AA quarterfinal berths. It’s been about executing and finishing off games, which it did at Smartball.
“I’m happy we’re out here winning,” Mark said.
The South Shore players took it a step further. Sheppard thinks the title proved South Shore, as currently constituted, will be the best team in the PSAL. Samuel took it as a sign, of his team’s growth, maturity and bright future.
“We’re just showing we’re a good team, we’re gonna be disciplined, coachable,” Samuel said. “This is the year — I feel it.”