Not once in the first half of the season did PSA’s Elite boys’ basketball team field the lineup they envisioned in the preseason. Whether it was injuries or off-the-court incidents or something else entirely, coach John Cavaliere has been searching for the right combinations.
Now that the second semester is in full swing, things are falling into place for the Mustangs.
The return of Jalen Claude and the addition of Pop Wadang from the Prep team have solidified the rotation and last week, helped PSA to a pair of wins.
Tuesday it was an 85-82 victory over Mitchell College’s JV, as Claude finished with 22 points Thierry Lokrou added 20 points, Travis Upchurch 17, and Bennett Pegues 11.
“I see some really good things building with this team,” Cavaliere said.
“Mitchell gave us everything we could handle to finish the game, but we made big free throws (Travis Upchurch went 4-for-4 from the line in the final 90 seconds) and took care of the ball to finish the job.”
They finished the week with an 83-75 win Friday over We Believe Academy.
Lokrou had 29 points, Claude 16, and Upchurch 15. Yhali Steinhauer added 11 points while Wadang finished with seven.
“Thierry bailed us out of a lot of possessions that we didn’t know what was going to happen,” Cavaliere said. “When he’s on his game like that, it’s a nice safe haven to have.
“Having Pop allows us to put everyone in their more natural position, allows us to keep four guards on the perimeter while he can protect the basket and give us a post presence on offense. And Jalen gives us another really good scorer.
"He’s been a successful scorer at this level before and he’s gotten even better this year. His basketball ability and understanding of the game has been a huge lift for us.”

PSA’s Varsity team split a pair of games last week, falling 58-45 to CATS Academy, then overwhelming Bartlett High School JV 73-30.
Shane Sebastian-Smalls scored 15 points and Max Shepel finished with 13 points in the loss. Victor DeLeon’s 17 points led the way in the victory.
“This was a good game for us because we were able to get a lot of guys who don’t play a whole lot some good minutes,” coach Nick Schmidt said.
“I thought the guys played real hard and took advantage of the chance to show what they can do in a game situation.”

In their lone game of the week Thursday, the PSA Select girls’ team toppled Busche Academy 73- 62 behind 20 points from Brianna Mead and 15 from Mani Lopez. Keyani Jackson finished with 14 points and Zuzanna Komor 11 for the Mustangs, who also got six points and eight rebounds from Hailey Johnson and seven points and solid all-around play from Taija Lloyd.

PSA’s Prep girls’ team found itself in a good one Friday night against Fort Erie of Canada at the Mecca Showcase in New York. The Mustangs were down one in the final seconds with a chance to tie it at the free throw line, but the potential game-tying shot went off the rim and out, and PSA eventually lost 63-60. It was the second meeting of the season between the teams (PSA dropped the first one back in October).
PSA bounced back Saturday with a convincing 73-44 win over Shabach Academy.

Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy

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