St. Peter’s 60 – Midwood 58
When you think about New York City basketball, normally only four boroughs come to mind. Staten Island, well, it has good football.
John Baiano is trying to change that. He definitely made some headway yesterday. With the score tied 58-58, the Eagles took out the ball with 90 feet to go. Baiano took the inbounds pass, drove down the court and found a wide-open Bill DeFazio, who hit the game-winning layup as St. Peter’s knocked off Midwood, 60-58, at the Hawkins Memorial Challenge at Columbia University.
“We always want the ball in John’s hands,” said St. Peter’s head coach Charlie Driscoll. “But especially in those kinds of situations and he came through again.”
He has come through quite often for the 19-1 Eagles, whose only loss came to Frederick Douglass. Yesterday, Baiano had 12 points, nine assists and eight rebounds – nothing unusual for the 5-foot-8 point guard. Baiano has become one of the best guards in the city, but his playing in Staten Island has diminished his visibility.
“I do think it hurts me,” said Baiano, who plays his AAU ball in Brooklyn with Grady’s Quincy Douby but is off the map during the regular season. “I think I can play on the Div. I level, but colleges don’t bother looking on Staten Island. When I see other players in the city, I know I can play with them. But no one wants to give me a chance.”
Baiano’s development has helped St. Peter’s offset the loss of four starters from last year’s squad and made the team even better.
“I like everyone counting on me,” Baiano said. “If it comes down to it, I want everything on me, so if we lose, it’s on my shoulders.”
He’s hoping that doesn’t happen for a while. To make more of a name for himself, St. Peter’s will have to knock off some teams in the CHSAA playoffs.
“There’s going to be a lot of pressure on me because a lot of people are going to look at me to prove myself,” Baiano said. “I’m happy I went to St. Peter’s, but it’s definitely been harder for me.”
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Pat Torney already had enough problems yesterday before his best player didn’t show up for Newtown’s game.
“He’s MIA,” Torney said of Andre Cole, the 6-foot-4 junior, who has led Newtown to 18 wins, but played poorly in losing against Boys & Girls on Saturday and never got to the Pioneers’ 55-43 loss to North Bergen. Torney never heard from his star junior and a student manager couldn’t reach him at his home. “I’ve learned to write everything in pencil, because you can’t count on anything in this league. I don’t know why he wasn’t here.”
As opposed to most other places, players are usually responsible to get themselves to games.
“I’d like to be able to throw everyone into a bus and go to the game,” said Torney, whose team fell to 18-4. “But that’s not possible. But not having him is not the reason we lost. We should have won anyway.”
