The names were unfamiliar, but the result wasn’t.
Aside from a few veteran holdovers, Boys & Girls entered the 16-team Smartball Metro Classic with an almost brand new team. It nevertheless repeated as champions, topping Cardozo, 70-55, in the title game at Gauchos Gym in The Bronx on Thursday night.
“What it shows is we still have some championship experience with Truck, Bryce [Jones] and Wesley [Myers],” Boys & Girls assistant Elmer Anderson said. “Our veterans are demanding our young players play defense and bring intensity.
The Kangaroos leaned on a starter – Leroy (Truck) Fludd – from their two-time championship team. Showing off an improved perimeter jumper, Fludd was named MVP after scoring a game-high 23 points.
“I need that to get ready for college,” he said. “I’m in the gym constantly.”
Ironically, Anderson said the difference was his four rising freshmen – Marvin Proclet, Winfield Lord, Jamie Killings and Armando Dunn – whom he inserted in the third quarter when Cardozo was ahead. They made shots, forced turnovers and played the kind of defense many have grown accustomed to seeing from Boys & Girls.
The game was still dead even at 48 midway early in the fourth quarter when Fludd and Co. took over. The rising senior started a clinching 12-0 run with a right-handed slam. Proclet (11 points), a good-looking, 6-foot-4 wing, followed with a basket and a 3-pointer. The Judges rallied to within five late, but Myers (eight points) spun around his man for a layup and Fludd sank a deep 3-pointer, the exclamation point on his dazzling display.
“I got to be a leader to the team now that everybody left,” said Fludd, referring to former standouts Mike Taylor, Antione Slaughter, Anthony Hemingway and Malik Nichols. “It’s my time to step up.”
Anderson has seen that already, just in the way Fludd has taken his new teammates under his wing and in his performance Thursday night. He and head coach Ruth Lovelace have demanded Fludd improve his ball handling and jumpshot and both were markedly better than they were in March.
Jermaine Lawrence paced the Judges with 14 points, 11 rebounds and eight blocks, but struggled offensively after halftime. He wasn’t alone as Cardozo, coach Ron Naclerio said, committed 15 second-half turnovers against the Kangaroos pressure. Rasheed Robinson added 15 points and Holy Cross transfer Omar Williams had nine.
“This was a really good exhibition game for us,” Naclerio said. “It shows, maybe, Cardozo isn’t going to be so easy to beat this year after all.”
It was a significant title for Boys & Girls – its first crown this summer – if only to give the program’s new contributors a winning feeling entering the school year. Plus, the Kangaroos beat rival Thomas Jefferson and powerful PSAL alternative school Satellite just to reach the final.
“We got a lot of confidence in ourselves now,” Fludd said. “It was important for us to come back here and win; that was big.”
Team SCAN 68, L.I. Lightning 52: In the rising ninth-grade showcase, St. Benedict’s Prep’s Isaiah Briscoe stole the show, scoring a game-high 26 points, Bryce Akens had 16 and Berkeley Carroll’s Shane Bearley tallied 14. St. Raymond’s Jaquan McKennon paced the Lightning with 20.