Banneker’s Marquis Roberts goes to the basket. (William Thomas)
Wendell Saunders was thrilled with Friday’s 55-51 victory over Grand Street Campus. Sure, Banneker nearly blew an eight-point, fourth-quarter lead with poor decisions and turnovers, but the Warriors also managed to hold on against the defending Brooklyn A West champions.
This is a team, the longtime coach emphasized, that is thin on experience. His only senior starter, Malichi West, joined last January and didn’t start playing organized basketball until the 10th grade. His other starters are either junior varsity call-ups or transfers.
“We knew how to maintain, stay in the game and keep the lead,” he said. “They won the division last year and we weren’t able to beat them. I was looking forward to the challenge.”
West, a 6-foot-5 forward who scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, made sure Banneker passed the early-season test.
After scoring 13 first-half points, he was quiet for most of the second half. He saved his best moment for the game’s most important one, scoring underneath with 30 seconds remaining to extend a two-point Banneker (4-1, 2-0 Brooklyn A West) lead to four.
“He’s very important,” Saunders said. “He’s good around the basket. He can use his left or right hand.”
West only turned to basketball when he seriously injured his shoulder playing football. He played JV as a sophomore and his parents wanted him to focus on raising his grades last year at this time, so he didn’t join the team until January.
“Last year was different, I feel comfortable more,” he said.
Being with the team from the start of preseason, “gives me momentum, gets me in better shape,” he added.
Saunders was pleased with his effort, but still doesn’t think West gets the ball enough, which is partly the team’s new guards’ fault and also his forward not taking charge enough.
“He needs to be aggressive,” Saunders said. “He needs to demand the ball more.”
West wouldn’t disagree.
“I still have a lot of work to do, I’m not where I want to be,” he said. “I want to get to where the defense can’t handle what I can do.”
West had plenty of help from the program’s newcomers. Nazareth transfer Marquis Roberts scored 12 points and JV callup Lynden Parkinson made a huge steal, picking off a Ayoola Agunwale pass, in the final seconds with Grand Street threatening to draw even and sank the clinching free throws.
“I was playing help defense, I knew he was trying to pass and I stepped out and got the steal,” Parkinson said.
The turnover capped a sloppy performance from Grand Street (2-4, 1-1, Brooklyn A West), which had plenty of chances in the fourth quarter to get over the hump. Too often, coach Claude Sharpe said, the Wolves rushed bad shots or turned the ball over.
“We couldn’t control the tempo of the game,” he said. “Young minds make mistakes. We have to close out games, we have to execute.”
