Lincoln’s Tafari Whittingham scored a team-high 15 points in defeat. (Denis Gostev)
Lincoln could be without nationally ranked sophomore Isaiah Whitehead for next week’s Brooklyn borough playoffs – and beyond.
The 6-foot-4 guard landed awkwardly on his left ankle late after a missing a fade-away jump shot along the left baseline in the third quarter of the Railsplitters’ 72-65 overtime loss to Boys & Girls in Bed Stuy. To make matters worse, reserve guard Da’Shawn Suber suffered a foot injury.
Whitehead immediately hit the floor in agony, writhing in pain, and stayed down for a few minutes before he was carried to the Lincoln bench. He remained there until the final horn and was later helped into the locker room. Afterward, he gingerly walked under his own power, albeit with a major limp. His mother Ericka Rambert took him to an orthopedist following the game and said he would have X-rays taken Friday morning.
“It burns,” said the phenom with several high Division I scholarship offers. “It feels like a really, really bad sprain.”
Lincoln coach Dwayne (Tiny) Morton declined to speculate on how long Whitehead could be out for or address the injury. The sophomore hopes he won’t be out longer than a week and to return in the borough playoffs, which begins with the quarterfinals Tuesday, the semifinals Thursday and the finals on Saturday.
“I’m going to be back, definitely,” Whitehead said.
Though he scored just seven points before going down, Lincoln was ahead 69-62 at the time of his injury and proceeded to fall in overtime. Whitehead routinely takes big shots for the Railsplitters and has developed a deserved reputation as a clutch performer.
“We definitely need him,” said forward Tafari Whittingham, who scored a team-high 15 points. “When he went down, I tried to step up, but It wasn’t good enough.”
That said, the Railsplitters (17-5, 12-2 Brooklyn AA) were in control much of the fourth quarter and were ahead, 59-56, with 14.5 seconds left and Ethan Telfair going to the free-throw line. The junior, however, missed two free throws and Boys High (18-5, 11-3) star Leroy (Truck) Fludd was fouled by Travis Charles while taking a fall-away 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds remaining and made all three of the free throws.
Lincoln objected to the call. Charles said he went straight up and never made contact with Fludd.
“It was a flop,” Morton said. “He did a good job acting.”
Shaquille Davis had a chance to be the hero, but his off balance running one-hander at the horn failed to draw iron and the Kangaroos scored 13 of the first 17 points of the extra session en route to victory.
Altogether, it was a lost evening for Lincoln. It lost its best player for the foreseeable future and fell to its archrival, costing itself the outright division title. Morton, though, wasn’t concerned about the regular season crown.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “It’s all about the last game.”
If Whitehead can’t return, getting to that final game at the Garden will be a lot harder.