Gary Forbes will end his college career at MSG this week, which is just where he ended his high school career five years ago. He’s hoping that this time, it turns out better.
“I don’t look back on many games,” said Forbes, a senior at UMass, “but that one still bothers me.”
He’s talking about the 2003 PSAL A title game, one that his Banneker team lost to Lincoln, 75-69, despite Forbes’ 30 points.
Tonight, he’ll return to the Garden when the Minutemen meet Florida in the NIT semis. Ole Miss and Ohio State is the nightcap.
He was named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, but Forbes regrettably looks back at that final game – especially the last minute. One year after Banneker got to the PSAL B championship at the Garden, the Brooklyn school reached the A finals and trailed by one with about 40 seconds to go. Forbes caught a pass from Anthony Stukes. Lincoln was on the ropes. Forbes, guarded by Sebastian Telfair, hesitated and pumped instead of shooting. He was called for traveling. Lincoln scored on its next possession.
“He was supposed to shoot that 3,” Banneker coach Wendell Saunders said. “The way he was playing, he would have made it and then who knows what would have happened?”
That’s why, before tonight’s game, he’ll find where he passed up the shot and will loft a few from there.
Given how things have gone, he probably will make them. In his second year at UMass after transferring from Virginia, the 6-foot-7 Forbes averaged 19.5 points and 7.7 rebounds.
“I’ve always wanted to redeem myself here,” Forbes said. “Now, I get that chance.”
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Ruby Milligan was watching her son’s Massachusetts squad getting drilled by Syracuse when Dante Milligan put in a seemingly meaningless basket. The announcers mentioned that Dante’s brother, Alonzo, had been the random victim of gunfire. He was killed in 2005.
“And then Massachusetts started coming back,” Ruby Milligan said. “I always said that Alonzo was their sixth man.”
With 26 seconds left, Milligan threw down a dunk as the Minutemen erased a 17-point deficit. “My entire basketball career flashed before my eyes,” Dante said. “There was so much adrenaline and emotion.”
When UMass faces Florida, Dante’s promise will be fulfilled. “When they didn’t make the NCAA Tournament, I was upset,” Ruby said. “Dante said, ‘Mom, this was meant to be. Alonzo and I went to the Garden all the time. I have to get back there for him.’ ”
Fans can donate to the Alonzo Milligan Mentorship Fund by logging onto http://www.bcny.org. – Lenn Robbins
contributed to this report
