South Shore has gotten the short end of the stick in close games against the city’s top teams all season long, but it finally pulled the long straw against Bishop Loughlin.
The Vikings pulled out an 87–86 overtime victory against the Lions in a back-and-forth nail-biter at the Brooklyn Bridge Holiday Classic at George Westinghouse on Dec 26.
“We knew that we were the better team,” said South Shore senior forward Shaquille Ricks.
South Shore senior forward Yaradyah Evans decided the game in the final seconds of overtime when he connected on a pull-up three with 25 ticks left. Loughlin got a final chance with 3.9 seconds to play, but it ultimately failed — Jeremy Betjol caught the ball off an in-bound, but he took too many steps on his way to the basket, and refs called a traveling violation that sealed the deal.
Beating Loughlin (4–2) could be a turning point in South Shore’s (5–4) season — the squad lost to Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Curtis by a combined 10 points.
“This is a big win for us,” said South Shore head coach Mike Beckles. “Our seniors stepped up. We could’ve done a better job in regulation of closing out. But our guys found a way to hit some big shots and get some stops on defense.”
South Shore held a sizable 76–65 lead with 2:30 remaining in regular time. Loughlin’s Markquis Nowell, who was held out of the first quarter, scored eight points during a 14–3 Loughlin run that tied the game 79–79 and sent in into an extra period. The Lions squad, which was coming off a big win over Long Island Lutheran, didn’t build off it.
“We just fell short,” Loughlin forward Jordan Thomas said. “We let the game against LuHi get to our heads. We just didn’t execute all our plays.”
Ricks led the way for South Shore with a team-high 25 points, and Senior Ziare Mateen had a big game with 19 points. Nowell paced Loughlin with 25 points in only three quarters.
The Lions led 20–18 at the end of the first quarter — Ricks scored 10 of South Shore’s points in the frame.
Nowell, who had 27 points against LuHi, got his first taste of action in the second quarter, but the sophomore guard struggled to find his rhythm. Instead, classmate Idan Tretout led a 9–2 Loughlin run to start the frame, scoring seven of his 10 second-quarter points during the spurt. It put South Shore in a 29–20 hole, but the team responded. The Vikings went on a 14–1 run to take a 34–30 lead with 2:55 left in the half.
Nowell finally came alive when he scored seven straight points in the first half’s final two minutes to help tie things up at 39–39 going into the locker room.
South Shore came out a 7–0 run to start the third quarter and grabbed control before being drawn into overtime, where it eked out the win.
