By Mike Morton
Inside the John Adams’ locker room prior to the PSAL A division championship game, someone scribbled a simple message on the blackboard: “Play defense and you’ll be city champions.” That’s exactly what the Spartans boys’ basketball team did against McKee/Staten Island Tech Sunday in the final at St. Francis College.
No. 13-seeded John Adams came out and played excellent defense, holding the No. 7 Seagulls to just 19 points through the first three quarters, on their way to a 52-48 victory and the school’s first PSAL A division championship.
“There’s a goal at the end, and this is it,” said 12th-year Adams Coach James Pitman, who said the feeling of winning this championship falls second only to the moment he married his wife.
MSIT (20-11) didn’t go down without a fight. Through three quarters, the Spartans (24-5) led 35-19, and it appeared to be all but over. That’s when MSIT got hot. The Seagulls scored 29 points in the fourth quarter, cutting a 19-point Adams lead in the first minute of the final frame to just three with 9.1 seconds remaining.
“They started hitting big shots, but that’s what you expect in a championship game,” said Spartan senior Markell French, who scored 13 points. “It’s never going to be a blowout. It’s going to be a close game every championship.”
With just 2.9 seconds remaining, senior Paul Johnson hit a free throw to make it a four-point, two-possession game, sealing the victory for the Spartans. Johnson’s leadership and team-high 18 points, including nine in the fourth quarter, helped lead Adams to victory.
“They forced us to throw a lot of turnovers, so we just had to gain our composure back, get back in the game, mentally and physically,” he said. “We were able to do that, get to the free throw line, and we won.”
MSIT senior Osa Izevbuw, who scored a game-high 26 points, scored 15 points in the fourth quarter after struggling to find his shot in the first half. Izevbuw’s shooting touch was contagious in the fourth, as the Seagulls suddenly saw their shots dropping.
“Osa, he was tough,” Johnson said. “He was good. We knew coming in it was going to be hard to guard him. First half we did a good job, second half he came out hitting a lot of his shots.”
Izevbuw was guarded by a collection of Spartan seniors. One of the seniors who saw extensive time on Izevbuw was Ahmed Kone, who held the Seagulls forward to just seven points in the first half.
“We had to lock him up,” said Kone, who scored 14 points and was named the game’s MVP. “That was about it.”
