Wadleigh’s coach Mike Crump argues with the official after picking up a technical foul. (Damion Reid)
For six weeks, everything went right for the Wadleigh boys basketball team.
The Tigers won 12 straight games. Senior Karim Rowson accepted his role as a sixth man. David Burgos emerged as the floor general that was sorely needed.
The schedule-makers also helped, serving up a platter of also-rans.
That ended this week, and so has Wadleigh’s streak. Friday’s 92-81 home loss to John F. Kennedy was the Tigers’ second setback in five days, both against a perennial power. On Sunday, Boys & Girls routed them, 58-42.
“At this point it’s not a perception we’re soft,” coach Mike Crump said. “It’s a reality.”
As was the case against Boys & Girls, Wadleigh got off to a slow, flat start, finding itself in a 21-point hole. The Tigers let Kennedy’s duo of Naquan Pierce and Jeffrey Short run wild, the two combining for 70 points.
Rowson criticized Wadleigh’s defense – or in this case, lack thereof. He gave plenty of credit to Pierce and Short, a backcourt that has enjoyed similar scoring outbursts in prior victories. He said the Tigers’ victories over Kennedy in preseason tournaments gave them a false bravado.
“We started off laidback because we beat them in the summertime,” Rowson said. “It backfired on us. We can’t take teams for granted.”
Rowson was a bright spot, scoring a team-high 37 points on a bevy of offensive rebounds and stick backs, jumpers and post-up moves. He led Wadleigh’s furious second-half comeback, limiting Pierce to 16 second-half points after the senior lit up others. Trivante Bloodman added 15 points, Burgos had 10, Tyrie Orosco nine and Malik Thomas five.
Crump singled out Thomas, his senior leader headed for Boston University, for poor shot selection in the second half. The coach also benched him late in the fourth quarter.
Twice, the Tigers (13-5, 11-2 Manhattan AA) got within eight, and were within seven late in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t completely climb the mountain. They were bedeviled by the slow start, an inability to get defensive stops and lack of offensive execution.
One positive was Wadleigh’s continued fight. The Harlem powered went on a 10-0 run in waning moments of the fourth quarter, cutting a 17-point deficit to seven. The same could be said of the loss to Boys & Girls.
“What I did like about both games if we came out in the second half and played like we should,” Crump said. “My exact words to the season after the game is the season is not over. There are other teams in the same situation we are in. Boys & Girls and Kennedy are hot right now. If we can get to the final eight, now we know what it’s like.”
That doesn’t mean Crump plans to keep the status quo. He will juggle his starting lineup, hoping an adjustment can work as well as it did the first time when he sent Rowson to the bench. One move is to get energetic sophomore guard Basil Harley into the starting five.
“We got to get that spark in the beginning,” he said. “One thing we’re not gonna do is stand pat.”