As I hurried to the media room at Carnesecca Arena after the St. John’s women’s basketball team’s enormous victory against No. 4 Notre Dame, I took a peak up into the corner of the stands where coach Anwar Gladden and a handful of his South Shore girls basketball players were sitting.
The smiles on their faces when I said goodbye told me enough. Yeah, there’s big-time college basketball in New York City. But it’s on the women’s side in Jamaica, Queens.
With a roster rife with local talent, the 22nd-ranked Red Storm earned the biggest win in the history of their program Tuesday night. No St. John’s women’s team had beaten a top-five opponent. It might have actually been one of the most significant victories for St. John’s – men or women – since the men advanced to the Elite Eight in 1999.
This is a team New York City can rally around, the kind of team that can bring together the girls basketball community. Among the 1,350 in attendance, I saw Gladden and his girls, North Babylon (L.I.) coach Mike Petre and Philly Belles coach Dinero Young. I’m sure there were others. After decades of complete irrelevance, St. John’s is becoming a serious name in women’s basketball.
And just look at the names on the roster. They’re pretty familiar.
Da’Shena Stevens, last season’s Big East Rookie of the Year, had 21 points and 11 rebounds Tuesday night. She has a chance to be an All-American when all is said and done, a future pro. Stevens is from Connecticut, just a stone’s throw away from the city. Stevens played her AAU ball for the NY Gauchos in The Bronx. She’s absolutely someone local girls can look up to, an inspiration.
“I thought Da’Shena was outstanding tonight,” St. John’s coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “She’s kind of been up and down. This is the thing that I don’t think people understand and even she doesn’t understand. Her numbers are a little bit down from last year, but the success of our team is far better than it was last year. That sometimes comes with the territory. People really concentrate on her, try to set double teams at her, try to really stop her game. And the greatest thing about that is when that happens, it opens up things for other people. Even though she hasn’t been statistically as great, she’s been our most valuable player.”
Then there’s Shenneika Smith, who had 23 points and 10 rebounds. She’s like a force of nature on the court, involved in everything. She’s one of the best freshmen in the country, who could play for any team in the country. Where is she from? Canarsie, Brooklyn. She played her high school ball at St. Michael Academy in Manhattan and AAU with Exodus.
“She might be one of the best ever to come through [St. John’s],” Barnes Arico said.
Nadirah McKenith, another freshman, is a pure point guard and an indispensable piece. She had seven assists, seven rebounds and three steals against Notre Dame, a day after being named Big East Rookie of the Week. McKenith, who is already one of the best point guards in the Big East, is from Newark, played at University HS and ran with the New Heights AAU program in The Bronx.
If that isn’t enough, there’s Sky Lindsay (Brooklyn), Elon Sidney (Queens), Eugeneia McPherson (Long Island), Jennifer Blanding (Brooklyn) and Amanda Burakoski (Brooklyn).
New York City has always been a serious hub of girls high school basketball. It’s nice to know people don’t have to go far to see it played very well on the next level now.
This group is going to be together for awhile and the accolades will no doubt pile up. But, high school coaches, it’s never too early to show your girls what one of the best teams in the country looks like.
