’ ROOS RULE!
Boys wins Federation crown
ALBANY — Throughout this deep, almost magical playoff run for Boys & Girls, different players stepped forward to make names for themselves.
In the PSAL city championship, it was transfer Rashad Andrews scoring 26 points to lead the Kangaroos to victory.
In Saturday’s state Federation Class AA semifinal, seldom-used reserve Courtney Solomon had his biggest game of the season.
And in the Federation title game on Sunday, a new player emerged. Defensive stopper Shakur Pinder — also known as “Garbage Man” — provided the Kangaroos with a series of gamechanging blocks off the bench in a grueling, hard-fought 66-60 win over defending state champion Mount Vernon at the Times Union Center.
The one constant throughout Boys & Girls’ postseason dash, the player who helped the Kangaroos win the school’s first Federation title ever, and made Ruth Lovelace the first female head coach of a boys team to win a Federation championship, has been Leroy (Truck) Fludd.
The undersized power forward who proudly calls himself a “bully” for his ability to push around opposing team’s top players, Fludd led the Kangaroos (26-6) with a team-high 25 points. The unsigned senior also helped control Mount Vernon’s high-powered attack, run by highly-recruited Isaiah Cousins, who finished with just 13 points.
“I’m a physical player,” said Fludd, who was voted the Federation tournament MVP after becoming the only player in school history to win three straight city titles. “I bully people. I defend the other team’s best player and get inside their head and get them frustrated. That’s what happened today.”
As is typical for Boys & Girls, it was a total team effort on Sunday, but it wasn’t easy. The Kangaroos quickly fell behind 12-2 in the first quarter, mostly because of their own poor passing and the Knights’ athleticism.
But the Kangaroos, led by Pinder (four blocks), used a strong defensive push to get back in the game in the second quarter. A 3-pointer by Fludd put the Kangaroos up for the first time, 24-22, with 3:07 left in the second, and they never trailed again. Wesley Myers also scored 12 of his 17 points in the second, when the Kangaroos outscored the Knights 20-4 to take a 31-22 lead into the half.
“My confidence just kept rising with every shot I made,” said Myers, a 6-2 junior guard.
The Kangaroos pushed the lead to as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter, but Mount Vernon (23-3) fought back, eventually cutting the deficit to four points — 62-58 — with 48 seconds left on a driving layup by Randy Stevens (15 points).
Myers and Fludd each hit two foul shots in the final 17.5 seconds to seal the win. Mount Vernon missed 20 of its 25 3-point shots.
Four Kangaroos — Fludd, Myers, Tyliek Kimbrough and Joel Angus — were named to the alltournament team, along with St. Raymond’s Daniel Dingle and Mount Vernon’s Cousins.