VIKING ON GUARD
Simeon lifts South Shore over B’klyn AA rival
SOUTH SHORE guard Nick Simeon loves flying under the radar.
The junior admits he’s not on many people’s list as one of the premier guards in the city, but he’s perfectly fine with that. He still believes he’s one of the best, and so do his teammates, as well as Vikings coach Michael Beckles. For Simeon, that’s enough. And i n Sat u rday’s 70-57 win over Brooklyn Col leg iate, Simeon made his case that he could be one of the city’s finest guards, as he scored 19 points and fueled a second-half comeback for the Vikings in a big early-season PSAL Brooklyn AA battle between a pair of teams that both went into it with 0-3 records.
“I know I’m one of the best point guards out here that nobody really knows,” Simeon said, “so I’m just going to go hard everyday in practice so I can maybe start getting some recognition.”
After South Shore built an early 8-0 lead, things fell apart fast for the Vikings, as Brooklyn Collegiate went on a 34-20 run for the rest of the first half. Simeon struggled, too, missing several wideopen three-point shots and getting into foul trouble.
But in the third quarter, things turned around for Simeon and South Shore. His hot three-point shooting — he drained four threes in the third — helped the Vikings score 29 points in the third quarter and take a double-digit lead into the fourth.
“If anything, those missed shots just built my confidence to shoot more,” Simeon said of his early shooting woes. “If I missed a shot that I know I can make, then I’ll make it the next time. I saw my teammates really wanted to win this game, so I told myself I’m going to play hard for them. It opened everybody up, and we were able to take control.”
Simeon’s three-pointer from the corner broke a 35-35 tie in the third. After the Lions responded with a layup to pull back to within one, Simeon hit another threepointer. From there, Brooklyn Collegiate was never able to get to within one possession again.
At the end of the third, Simeon delivered the dagger. After a Brooklyn Collegiate bucket with two seconds left cut South Shore’s lead to 54-44, Simeon got the ball near half-court and put a shot up that went in.
South Shore’s players went crazy and carried the momentum into the fourth quarter, where they were were able to coast to the win.
“I think Nick is one of the better guards in the city,” Beckles said. “He’s proven that and he’ll continue to do that this season. It’s a good win going into Monday because we have a big game against Lincoln.”
With the vaunted Brooklyn AA division seemingly wide-open this season, Beckles added there’s no better time for his point guard to get hot than right now. Lincoln is the defending division champion and has dominated South Shore the last several seasons but is without a huge star like it has had for most of the past decade in players like Isaiah Whitehead (Seton Hall) and Lance Stephenson (NBA).
“As of right now, nobody’s stopping Nick,” South Shore forward Cori Johnson said. “He’s sharp, he’s in the gym working on his skill set, and he’s really good. This year everybody has the mindset to just win. We’re not losing no more.”