At the final horn, both coaches had a look of exasperation.
Forest Hills’ Ben Chobhaphand because his Rangers were unable to execute down the stretch and dropped its second non-league game against a citywide power, and Wings Academy’s Billy Turnage after his young club was unable to turn a large lead into a comfortable win a second consecutive day.
Turnage, though, was able to smile moments later, unlike Chobhaphand.
“We make our life harder, but we’re winning,” Turange said after the Deonte Houston-less Wings’ 56-50 victory over Forest Hills, its third in as many days, in the Sixth Annual Queens Jam Christmas Classic at John Bowne HS in Flushing. “We got to get better at closing out games.”
Wings has junior Justin Jenkins to thank for its 3-0 record. The JV call-up had a huge fourth quarter in Friday’s win over Wadleigh and led The Bronx school on Saturday with 18 points and five rebounds.
“Without Deonte, I had to step up and be a leader,” he said.
The 6-foot-1 Jenkins was attending preseason workouts with the varsity last fall, but Turnage sent him to the JV for experience, which is paying off now. When Houston returns from an ankle injury, Jenkins will go back to the bench as the Wings’ sixth man, a role he doesn’t mind.
“That’s OK – I’ll bring energy off the bench and I’ll get involved once I come in,” he said.
Yoshimar Bernadez added 13 points and six assists and Andre Chambers and Steven Gomez each had eight for Wings (3-0). Denzil Dulin scored 16 points for Forest Hills (2-2) and Jose Torres had nine.
The Wings didn’t seem to miss Houston, their lone returning starter and team captain, in the early going. Hot from the outside and able to control the glass, they led 34-22 at halftime and 43-26 after Gerrell Martin’s banker in transition.
As was the case on Friday, Wings tired, began making mistakes and became porous on the defensive end. Forest Hills got to within four on several occasions in the fourth quarter, but never could climb the proverbial mountain.
The first time it was that close, at 48-44, Jenkins answered with a jumper midway through the fourth quarter. A minute later, after Padgett’s offensive rebound and follow, Forest Hills bogged down on offense.
Dulin missed the front end of a one-and-one, Padgett and Collins each missed open 3-pointers, Dulin couldn’t get a runner in the lane to fall and Padgett turned it over. Chambers and Bernadez hit free throws down the stretch to ice it.
“We didn’t get any good shots in the last two minutes,” Chobhaphand said, shaking his head. “We were attacking, but you got to attack smarter. … We had a lot of bad shot selection, bad decisions.”
Forest Hills seemed unsure where it wanted to go with the ball in those fateful possessions, which wasn’t an issue last year when St. John’s signee Maurice Harkless was shredding opposing defenses. But when Harkless opted to leave for South Kent (Conn.), the Rangers’ had to find a new go-to guy. Thus far, that player has yet to be established; Chobhaphand said it’s depending upon who has the hot hand.
Through four games, Forest Hills is 2-2, with its two losses to powers Boys & Girls and Wings Academy.
“I wouldn’t say any loss is good, but we can definitely learn from it and come February and March, this can help us,” Dulin said.