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caption:
Cris McElveen. Collin Hamilton photo.
It was an unfamiliar sight at Clark University last Thursday as the final horn sounded on the National Prep Basketball Tournament: Putnam Science Academy walking off the floor dejectedly, the scoreboard revealing the Mustangs on the losing end of the championship game for the first time in a long time.
After one blowout and two nerve-wracking wins over the first two days of the tournament, short-handed PSA fell behind early in the final and could never get back in front, as it fell to a hot-shooting Western Reserve (Ohio) team, 76-63.
PSA had won the last two national championships (technically, the last three, as there was no tournament in 2020-21 because of COVID).
“It’s just really tough,” coach Tom Espinosa said afterward. “I feel for our kids. They’re really hurting. Give Western Reserve credit, they made a ton of shots. But it’s just tough right now.”
The Mustangs led just once, 1-0 about 90 seconds into the game. They trailed by 11 at halftime and by as many as 18 early in the second half.
To its credit, PSA mounted a rally and got within six with 3:40 to play, but could never get over the hump as Western Reserve continued to knock down back-breaking shot after back-breaking shot.
Fallou Gueye had 17 points, nine rebounds, and five assists, while Oswin Erhunmwunse finished with 15 points, nine rebounds, and four blocked shots. Tony Williams added 10 points and Cris McElveen eight for PSA, which played without leading scorer Justin Johnson, out with an injury suffered in the team’s semifinal win earlier Thursday.
The. Mustangs advanced to the title game by knocking off Combine Academy 76-70 in the semis behind 17 points, six rebounds, and three blocks from Erhunmwunse. Gueye had seven points and a career-high 12 assists, Que Duncan finished with 11 points, and Ben Ahmed and Imahri Wooten both had nine points, as a number of guys filled the void left by Johnson, who was injured about four minutes into the game.
PSA survived a back-and-forth stress-inducer in Wednesday’s quarterfinal, topping Link Year Prep 64-58. Johnson had 15 points, five rebounds, four assists, and two steals for PSA, which trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half, before cutting the deficit to three at halftime. The Mustangs led by six with just over five minutes to play, but found themselves down by one just two-and-a-half minutes later. Johnson, though, made some big shots down the stretch to help PSA advance. Gueye finished with 12 points, while Grant Randall had 10 points, seven rebounds, and a career-high six blocks. Erhunmwunse added 10 points, six rebounds, and three blocks in the win.
PSA rolled to a win in its first-round game, beating Bridgton Academy 96-46 Tuesday, as Ahmed finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds and became the fifth player in PSA history to score 1,000 career points in the process. Later in the tournament, he became the school’s record holder for both points and rebounds in a single season.
The Mustangs finish the season at 32-12, the most losses they have ever suffered. But eight of those came in the first half of the season (and one more came in the team’s first game of the second half), when it was a different team. Four players left the program over the semester break, and three new ones (Randall, Wooten, and Mousa Loum) came in, plus Wiliams was promoted from the Elite team and perhaps most importantly, Erhunmwunse returned from injury. Additionally, a number of players – Gueye and McElveen in particular – made drastic changes in their approaches to the game that it all created a different feel in and around the team starting in January.
“We’ve never had a season like this,” Espinosa said. “And honestly, I’m going to remember it for guys like Fallou and Cris, guys who completely changed their games and made such significant improvements individually that they improved our team as a whole. And those two guys are guys that I pushed like very few others in the past. They could have quit, they could have left. But they didn’t. They fought through the adversity and figured it out and became key starters on a team that played in the championship game.
“I’m going to talk about those guys to future teams for a long, long time.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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