Forward Leroy Isler battles for position under the basket. (Damion Reid)
Boys & Girls has 10 wins, it is joined by Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson at the top of Brooklyn AA, the toughest division in the city, and has played much of the year without many important pieces.
Yet, the Kangaroos resume isn’t nearly what it could be. Of their four losses – to Jefferson, Lincoln, Christ the King and Sunday’s 57-49 loss to Cardozo in the PSAL Mid-Winter Classic – The High has been virtually right there until the end.
Now, none of these setbacks can be classified as a collapse, yet they were all winnable games, pockmarks on a record that could be very much improved.
“Every game, we’re supposed to win,” Boys & Girls guard Mike Taylor lamented. “We’re in all four of them. Just couldn’t finish them off.”
The loss to the Judges (9-2) was the most galling of all, considering the ample opportunities the Kangaroos (10-4) had. They took 35 free throws, but missed 16 of them; missed too many point-blank shots to list; blew fast break opportunities, the kind they usually execute in their sleep.
“We just couldn’t score,” Boys & Girls coach Ruth Lovelace said, a simple, succinct explanation.
At the heart of their struggles was Taylor, the highly-recruited junior. He finished with a team-high 16 points, but half of those came late in the fourth quarter, after the result had long been decided. Cardozo sat in a 2-3 zone much of evening, but it wasn’t an ordinary zone, it was set high, to prevent Taylor from getting off his trademark jump shot. When he penetrated, two and sometimes even three defenders followed.
“It was frustrating,” he said. “I couldn’t get a shot off.”
The extra attention left his open teammates free, but other than senior Leroy Isler (14 points), they couldn’t take advantage. Point guard Antoine Slaughter struggled from the field, three long jumpers rattling in and out. Forwards Jerry High and Brandon Williams were quiet, as was reserve guard Jamal Mapp.
“The other guys didn’t do a good job offensively,” Lovelace said.
Even so, Boys & Girls led 28-26 early in the third quarter. After a lackadaisical first half, the Kangaroos reeled off the first nine points of the third quarter, erasing a seven-point deficit. It included five points from Taylor and was capped by Isler’s steal and running one-hander.
All the good feelings built in that span were quickly eliminated by five consecutive turnovers. To make matters worse, Taylor picked up his fourth foul by the end of the third quarter, Cardozo had taken a seven-point lead. Boys & Girls would get no closer than five the rest of the way, missing four free throws in a row at one point and failed to trim the lead after Cardozo was issued technical fouls for having six players on the court and assistant coach Bruno Comatuccio arguing a call.
““It was a combination of turnovers, poor free throw shooting and missed shots that cost us,” Lovelace said.
The High won’t have to wait long to pick up that statement victory it is desperately in search of. Thursday evening the Kangaroos travel to East New York to face Jefferson with more at stake – the Brooklyn AA lead.
