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D’Maurian Williams in game last week. Photo by Yan Johnson.
PSA basketball coach Tom Espinosa has said more than once that the argument can be made that winning the conference tournament can be tougher than winning the national championship.
He certainly was right that the Great Atlantic Conference tourney is tough, as PSA suffered its second loss of the season March 7 to Our Savior Lutheran, 105-101, in the title game.
Now we’ll see if the Mustangs can bounce back and have an easier time in the National Prep Championships, which are being played this week at Conn College in New London.
“We just have to regroup in practice, work on the stuff we need to clean up, and get back at it,” said Marty Silvera. “Let’s do that and see what happens. I think it’ll all fall into place for us.
“People have to get over it and put it behind us quick, because we’ve got a chance to win a national championship. Fix what we need to fix and do it right next time we play.”
PSA received a first-day bye in the tournament. Its first game, in the quarterfinals, was played March 11; the semifinals and final are played March 12.
“I don’t know how we regroup,” Espinosa said, “but we have to. It helps that we get that bye the first day. We’ve got a couple of days to prepare for something even bigger.”
Saturday’s was a back-and-forth game as the teams traded runs and occasional leads. PSA led 49-46 at the half, but trailed most of second half, including down seven (97-90) with about five minutes to play. The Mustangs got the deficit down to 103-101 inside the final minute and had two opportunities to tie or take the lead after getting big stops on defense.
But back-to-back turnovers, one an intercepted outlet pass with 40 seconds left, the other after a non-call when Hassan Diarra drove to the basket and took a lot of contact, did PSA in.
“I saw the open lane,” Diarra said, “then I saw the guy step up. I tried to Euro-step around him, and he tripped me a little bit. The ref didn’t call it but you can’t base the game off that.
“We made a lot of mistakes throughout the game…a lot of turnovers, we didn’t rebound the ball well. We’ve got some things we need to fix before the national tournament.”
St-John’s-commit Posh Alexander, who had 42 points, 15 assists, five rebounds, and two steals, made a pair of free throws with two seconds to play and seal the win for OSL.
Rebounding was the overwhelming difference in the game. While there was no official count, OSL dominated the offensive glass and scored countless times off its own misses.
“They just killed us with second-and third-chance opportunities,” Espinosa said. “You can’t just give them two, three, four, sometimes more chances. I’ll take some of the blame on that. Next year, we’re going to do box-out drills every day.
“We’re supposed to be one of the best prep teams in the country and we couldn’t rebound. We can’t do that (this) week and expect to win.”
Diarra finished the game with 33 points and became PSA’s all-time leading scorer in the process.
“It’s cool, man,” said the Texas A&M-bound Diarra. “It’s amazing. I would have rather win the game though, so it’s bittersweet.”
Mekhi Gray provided a huge scoring lift for the Mustangs (34-4), knocking down five 3-pointers and finishing with a season-high 21 points. The Mustangs needed another scorer to emerge, as both Vlad Goldin and Johnnie Williams have been limited by injuries; Williams dressed for the GAC final but did not play.
“The past few games, I’ve been shooting real confidently,” he said. “I got some shots up early when we got here and I told Johnnie that when I got the ball, I’m going to shoot because my shot feels so good right now.”
D’Maurian Williams added 19 points for PSA.
PSA advanced to the final by making light work of Thetford in the semifinals. Diarra had 19 points, Josh Gray finished with 12 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks. Melvyn Ebonkoli added seven points and 10 rebounds, while Marty Silvera had seven points, six assists, and four steals in the Mustangs’ 86-43 win.
PSA also won its regular-season finale on March 3, topping Masters. 75-64. Mekhi Gray scored 16 points, D’Maurian Williams 14, and Diarra 12. Elijah Hutchins-Everett finished with 11 points and six rebounds, and Josh Gray added nine points and 11 rebounds.
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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