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Putnam Science Academy has a well-known identity of basketball excellence, fostered by the talented players who give the small school a chance to help them develop on and off the court.
Two of those student-athletes – Mouhamed Dioubate and Darryl Simmons – last week moved closer to etching their names into PSA lore as the Mustangs’ Prep team won three games.
Dioubate scored a career-high 33 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in a 110-80 win over Notre Dame-West Haven, then finished his week with 17 more points and another 10 boards in a 104-83 victory over Brimmer & May. Though Dioubate sat out a 110-86 win over Reason Prep, his two game totals pushed him closer to major milestones.
He ended the week just 115 points shy of 1,000 for his career, a total only three other PSA players have amassed. Dioubate may be better known for his rebounding prowess however, and at the end of the week needed just 61 more rebounds to break Mamadou Diarra’s career mark of 647, and 106 more to top Rundell Mauge’s single-season record of 408.
Meanwhile Simmons, who played in only the Brimmer & May game because of a nagging injury, made one 3-pointer in finishing with seven points. That gives him 140 3-pointers for his career, tying him with Hassan Diarra for the most in program history. And the seven points leave Simmons with 133 to go to reach 1,000 for his career.
PSA had three more regular-season games, plus at least two postseason games with the possibility of having seven, giving both players time to hit their marks.
In the win over Brimmer & May, Ben Ahmed had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Baye Ndongo added 15 points and 12 rebounds in just 15 minutes, and Oswin Erhunmwunse finished with 15 points for PSA (30-3).
Miles Rose scored a career-high 20 points, and Ahmed added 21 points and 13 rebounds in the win over Reason Prep. Duane Thompson also scored 20 and pulled down eight rebounds for PSA.
And against Note Dame-West Haven, Will Lovings-Watts had 15 points and five rebounds, Rose added 13 points and six assists, and Tarique Foster finished with 10 points and five rebounds. Thompson also scored 10 points, while Muazibini Adamu and Blake Barkley both grabbed nine rebounds.
The boys’ Varsity team split a pair of games last week.
Erick Aponte had 14 points but PSA felt the effects of being down seven players to illness in a 53-31 loss to CATS Academy.
Max Shepel added eight points in his return to the floor for the Mustangs, who trailed 22-21 at halftime but simply ran out of gas to stay in the game after that.
Shepel then led the Mustangs’ with 16 points in a 49-46 win over local rival St. Thomas More Thursday.
Aponte (12 points), Martyn Poliuchovic (seven points), Hugo Bolumar (six points) and Andre Vlasic (five points) all played well for PSA (13-8).
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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