Lincoln’s basketball reign atop the city took a one-year hiatus last winter, but the Railsplitters appear to have their aura back with a veteran club and a freshman who is a superstar in the making.
The Coney Island powerhouse completed the season sweep of its fierce rival, defending PSAL Class AA defending champion Boys & Girls, with a hard-fought 61-56 victory last night at Long Island University in Brooklyn to clinch the Brooklyn AA regular-season crown.
“We showed we’re back, we’re still Lincoln,” senior point guard Shaquille Stokes said. “It gives us a lot of confidence going into the playoffs. We feel we’re the team to beat.”
Stokes, one of the top unsigned seniors in the city, had 18 points, six assists and five rebounds. Freshman Isaiah Whitehead, Stokes’ impressive back-court mate, added 10 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter and had eight rebounds. In his return from a broken left pinky toe, power forward Kamari Murphy tallied 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocks.
Antione Slaughter scored 17 points for Boys & Girls (18-5), which was without Rutgers-bound star Mike Taylor. The senior sharpshooter failed his first-period class and Principal Bernard Gassaway has suspended him indefinitely, Boys & Girls coach Ruth Lovelace said. By PSAL rules, he is eligible, but Gassaway has his own rule that student-athletes have to pass their first class of the day.
“I’m kind of disappointed in the kid, not the principal’s decision,” Lovelace said. “You let down the team, let down the program. But he clearly knew. It’s not like it’s something he didn’t understand.”
Lincoln (19-2) got off to a slow start, managing just six points in the game’s first 10:59, but got even at 22 early in the third quarter and never trailed by more than a point the rest of the way. Stokes and Whitehead owned the final quarter as they combined for 17 points.
Stokes gave Lincoln the lead for good with a jumper from the top of the key early in the fourth quarter and Whitehead added a running one-hander in the lane. Two possessions later, the freshman sank a jump shot and moments later a 3-pointer.
“He’s the next big thing, so that’s what we expect,” Stokes said of Whitehead.
Boys & Girls got within two with 2:47 left, but Stokes answered with a lay-up in traffic over Kangaroos forwards Anthony Hemingway and Jeffland Neverson, and added a free throw the next time down.
“No. 1 player in the city right now – to me,” Lincoln coach Dwayne “Tiny” Morton said of the 5-foot-11 Stokes. “He’s the best player in this league.”
