caption:

Above: Que Duncan. Right: Kate Lipatova. Tom Netzer photos.

Coach thinks they 'found the hot hand naturally'
PSA’s Elite boys’ basketball team put its offensive firepower on display last week, scoring more 100 points in all three of its games, winning two of them and dropping a close one.
The biggest story was Jalen Claude scoring a school-record 47 points while making a school-record 12 3-pointers Saturday afternoon in a 121-112 win over The Newman School.
Claude, who arrived at PSA at the start of the 2021-22 school year and is now in his postgrad year, had five 3s and 21 points in the first half, then continued to pour it on in the second half to help PSA (18-7) stay ahead of Newman, which also shot it well from deep.
While Claude did his thing from the outside, Carter Mungin had his way on the inside, finishing with 23 points. Sebastian Fermin added 15 points, DJ Germann had 12 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists, and Javelle Epps added nine points and 10 boards for PSA.
“As a coach, you want to try and run some plays for the hot hand,” coach Nick Schmidt said, “but with our motion offense, our guys make their own reads. Sometimes you just have to let them go and trust them to make the right play. I thought we did a good job of doing that and found the hot hand naturally.”
A day before Claude had 27 points and Mungin went for 18 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, and three steals as PSA turned a 12-point game at halftime into a 120-70 laugher over South Shore Christian Academy.
PSA was up 43-17 with seven minutes left in the first half before South Shore closed on a 21-7 run to get back in the ballgame. It was 50-42 in the first minute of the second half when PSA went on a run of its own (17-4 over the next five minutes) to take control.
Fermin finished with 20 points, and Epps had 18, while Jude Gonzalez added seven points, seven rebounds, four assists, and three steals and Mike Olorunsola chipped in five points, five rebounds, four assists, and three steals for PSA.
Mungin began his strong week Wednesday with a 24-point, 10-rebound, five-assist showing in a 110-106 loss to We Believe Academy. Germann added 23 points, five rebounds, five assists, and five steals, while Fermin and Epps both finished with 16 points for the Mustangs.
The Prep team won a pair of games, giving them 25 wins for the 10th straight year (not including the truncated COVID 2020-21 season in which the Mustangs went 18-3). PSA slogged its way to an 89-68 victory over Lee Academy Friday night, as Que Duncan had 11 points, five rebounds, six assists, and four steals. Oswin Erhunmwunse finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds, Justin Johnson scored a team-leading 17 points, and Fallou Gueye had 16 points, six boards, five assists, and drew two charges for PSA.
It was a much more dominant performance Saturday, as Ben Ahmed had 19 points and 14 rebounds in just 12 minutes and PSA rolled to its most lopsided win of the season, 131-80 over Reason Prep. The Mustangs had six players score in double figures and 13 registered at least six points as they never looked back after jumping out to a 20-2 lead just four-and-a-half minutes into the game.
Amdy Ndiaye finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds, Gueye had 11 points and four assists, Erhunmwunse tallied 10 points and three blocks, and Duncan had nine points and a season-high 10 rebounds. Noah Mendy chipped in with 12 points, and Tony Williams added 10. Derrick Morris grabbed seven rebounds and Mousa Loum had eight as everyone had a hand in the win.
The boys' Varsity team won its lone game of the week, topping Rocky Hill 70-40 Thursday behind Ilan Da Silva-Alp’s 14 points. Carlos Garcia, Shane Sebastian-Smalls, and Amyas Hall-Chiari each scored 11 points while Nikita Badrajan added nine for PSA, which won its fourth straight game and improved to 13-9.
The girls' team split its two games, beating Pomfret Prep handily on Saturday, a win that came on the heels of Wednesday’s 66-42 loss to Blair Academy, one of the top teams in the country.
Kate Lipatova had nine points and eight rebounds in that one, but it wasn’t enough as PSA struggled to make shots. Alba Granell had 11 points to lead the Mustangs (11-16).
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy

.