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Bosco’s Corner: The upset no one saw coming

By Anthony Bosco

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The Bryant Owls were not supposed to be the team to win the first Queens championship, but there they were, dancing and celebrating at midcourt at Elmcor Monday evening, euphoric about their upset win.

Bryant had stunned the Bayside Commodores, just two days after doing the same to the Cardozo team. The Owls, a team that didn’t even win its division title, a team seeded 20th by the Public School Athletic League for the upcoming playoffs, had shocked the basketball world and no one could believe it, most of all the Bayside players.

The Commodores, perhaps underestimating Bryant, were supposed to wrap up the crown. Having lost just once all season — to rival Cardozo — Bayside seemed a safe bet to clinch the Queens championship when Bryant stunned the Judges Saturday.

Perhaps Bayside wanted another crack at the only team to defeat it and suffered a forgivable letdown. Perhaps the team just couldn’t get itself up for a Bryant team no one seemingly respected or expected much from.

But that’s not what happened. Bayside collapsed in the third quarter, letting a 10-point lead slip through its collective hands while Bryant, a team that never let the Commodores cruise out of striking distance, struck quickly and effectively.

Behind the stellar play of Diego Aguiar, Brandon Williams and Noureddine Munir, William Ellison and Fleans Dervishi, who managed to irritate just about every member of the Bayside team, Bryant prodded Bayside into self-destruction unlike any I’ve ever seen.

Bayside, led by a pair of talented players in C.J. Okogeri and Lance Hazel, simply fell apart. After racing out to a quick lead to start the game and keeping Bryant sufficiently at bay most of the game, the Commodores seemed well on their way to an expected victory. Then the roof caved in.

In no time Bayside’s 10-point lead disappeared, as the Owls scored 12 straight points to close out the third quarter and take a two-point advantage into the fourth and final period before a shocked crowd.

Bayside began to compose itself at the start of the fourth, but when Bryant took a four-point lead, Bayside fell apart. A technical foul on Okogeri resulted in four successful free throws and a layup for Bryant, giving the Owls a 10-point lead with just more than three minutes remaining.

From then on, no matter Bayside tried, Bryant had an answer. When the dust finally settled, Bryant had won the game.

Coached by John Demas, Bryant finished the PSAL regular season with a league record of 12-2, just behind Newtown for second place in the Queens 1-A. The team’s only two league losses came against Aviation and Newtown, both early in the year. The team brought a 10-game league winning streak into the game against Bayside, including its 86-81 win over Cardozo.

Against Cardozo Dervishi and Aguiar both netted 24 points in a much bigger upset for the Owls. In downing Cardozo, the city’s No. 7 ranked team in the citywide playoffs, Bryant not only advanced to the finals, upsetting the apple cart for a Bayside-Cardozo trilogy, but also made a declaration to the entire city that it was for real.

Bryant barely made it through its opening round game, a 55-54 win over Beach Channel Friday. But thanks to the stellar play of Aguiar, who scored 30 points in the win, Bryant muddled through in a game they were supposed to win.

Those two games, however, were just a prologue to Monday night.

What was supposed to be a coronation for Cardozo or Bayside, the two teams everyone thought would make it to the finals for a much-anticipated rubber match, turned out to be the crowning of a new champ, the borough’s first under the new PSAL system.

Bayside, Cardozo and the other teams from Queens that made the playoffs have a new life with the start of the second season, while Bryant will have to continue to play up to the competition. If there is one negative with winning the title the way they did, it’s the possibility of a letdown.

But Monday night none of the Bryant players could think of such a thing. They had done what no one expected them to do, and that was pretty sweet.

On the girls’ side of things, there was nothing nearly as dramatic. The top two seeds squared off for borough bragging rights Monday afternoon and Francis Lewis, the top seed in both the borough and the city for the playoffs, trounced Townsend Harris. It was a 20-point game in the first quarter and a forgone conclusion from then on.

But I still have to praise Lewis coach Mike Eisenberg, a man who a few seasons ago had his job taken away by former PSAL top dog Thomas Hemans, unjustly in my opinion, only to have it reinstated a year ago. Now Eisenberg has perhaps his best chance to bring a city crown back to Queens this season.

He and the Patriots already have one title under their arms, and that’s pretty sweet too.

Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at [email protected] or call 229-0300, Ext. 130.