Rally sends Lions to semis
MCA to face No. 1 Troy after Dejesus, Barnhill help erase 12-point hole
When Ozzy Dejesus is at peak level on the hardwood, he provides opponents a multitude of issues to contend with. Sunday afternoon, Dejesus’ most formidable opponent proved to be himself.
Dejesus, the point guard of the Mekeel Christian Academy boys’ basketball team, committed five early turnovers as he and the rest of the Lions failed to roar during the opening quarter against Lansingburgh.
The Knights opened up a 12-point advantage before Dejesus settled in and began to excel.
MCA found its offensive rhythm in the second half, with Dejesus serving as the offensive conductor, and rallied to produce a 66-61 victory over the Knights in the Section II Class A quarterfinal at Hudson Valley Community College.
Asked to describe his first quarter, Dejesus said, “terrible.” The junior rebounded from his sluggish start to generate 21 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Alex Barnhill registered 15 of his 18 points after intermission and Michael Show drained four 3-pointers in scoring 12 points for the Lions. MCA shot 50 per-
cent overall, including a healthy 12-for-20 (60 percent) from three-point range.
“He was pretty hyped up,” MCA coach Chad Bowman said of Dejesus. “He had only one turnover the rest of the game. What makes a good player a great player is when you make your teammates better. He got Mike involved and he got Al involved in the second half.”
The victory by the fourth-seeded Lions (16-4) secured a semifinal slot at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls on Thursday night. Their opponent will be No. 1 seed Troy (17-4) as the Flying Horses easily glided past Queensbury 87-51 in the final quarterfinal contest at HVCC.
With five minutes remaining in the second quarter, the Lions only had scored 12 points, but they settled down to produce 17 points to the half with a flourish.
“We got rid of the butterflies we had at the start,” Dejesus said.
Cameron Stewart kept MCA close with a pair of vital 3-pointers in the first half. Ricky Rollins (seven points, eight rebounds) tipped in a rebound to cut Lansingburgh’s lead to 33-29 at halftime.
“At halftime, we really came together and talked about what we needed to do to win,” Dejesus said. “The main thing was not to turn the ball over.”
Lansingburgh senior Trevor Green
made 7 of 10 shots to score 15 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists.
Vinny Tario (15 points, seven rebounds and five assists) and Jahad Lewis (13 points on 6-for-6 shooting and six rebounds) also played well for the Knights.
The biggest issue Lansingburgh encountered was its inability to match MCA’S perimeter prowess as the Knights made only 2 of 16 from beyond the arc.
“Lansingburgh is a very good team and I was really pleased with the way our kids stuck together,” Bowman said. “We were down 12 early, but there is no six-point play out there. It was one possession at a time and they hung together.”
The Flying Horses had little trouble establishing their pace on both offense and defense against Queensbury (10-12), blasting out to a 22-8 lead after one quarter and pushing that advantage to 45-6 at halftime. The Spartans made just 5 of 25 shots in the first 16 minutes and finished with 21 turnovers.
Nazaire Merritt led the way with 18 points, Latyce Faison delivered 15 points, six rebounds and three steals and Nasir Soto and Zaveon Little (5-for-5 shooting) each tallied 11 points for Troy.
The Flying Horses owned a 37-21 rebounding edge and shot 57.4 percent from the field — including 61.5 percent in the second half.