Sports

Scoreless first quarter does in Medgar Evers

The seeds for Medgar Evers’ disastrous start were sown long before the Cougars arrived late for their game Monday at Banneker.

Last week, after a disappointing loss to Lincoln in the Baseline Holiday Madness Tournament final, the squad’s expensive new road uniforms and warm-ups were stolen out of a parent’s car. Coach Barney Davis and his players were late arriving in Fort Greene on Monday after having to pick up their white uniforms. Medgar Evers didn’t get a full warm-up either.

“We were late, didn’t get much warmup and they were unfocused with all the drama,” Davis said.

All that resulted in being down 17-0 after the first quarter of an eventual 62-48 loss to Banneker in PSAL Brooklyn AA Group 2 girls basketball. The Cougars (7-6, 5-3 Brooklyn AA Group 2) didn’t score a point until sophomore forward Shakila Small banked in a baby jumper with 5:53 left in the second quarter to make it 20-2.

“That was said,” Medgar Evers star Ashley Castle said, shaking her head.

Castle’s 3-pointer would get Medgar Evers within 36-26 with 2:51 left in the third quarter and the Cougars got within 11 in the fourth quarter. But they never could cut it to single digits against Banneker (8-5, 5-3), the team it beat in their season opener back on Nov. 22. The Warriors were down three starters then, though.

“You gotta get focused, especially with a team that wants to beat you and a team that’s better than you,” Davis said.

Medgar Evers expended a whole lot of energy trying to trim that lead and looked exhausted late in the fourth.

“It’s hard to come up like that,” Castle said. “If we were playing the whole game like we did from the second quarter on, we would have won.”

The coach said he thinks he’s going to have to start pressing right from the start of the game from now on as that is what helped Medgar Evers cut into the big lead. Castle blamed Banneker’s 1-2-2 zone defense for bottling up her team in the first half.

“Their defense bothered us,” Castle said. “We couldn’t even get in the middle. It took us a long time to figure it out.”

Davis hopes it doesn’t take a long time to figure out what’s wrong with his team. He already has next week’s game against winless James Madison circled as a must-win. There wasn’t much yelling in the classroom at Banneker after the game, though.

“I like to keep things low key, so we don’t get too happy when we win and too upset when we lose,” Davis said.

mraimondi@nypost.com