When Beatrice Wallace was a freshman at Brooklyn College Academy, she was upset to realize that the school had never won a girls basketball championship, so she made it her mission to win one.
Four years later, her mission was accomplished as the Brooklyn College Academy Bobcats beat East Harlem Pride 46-42 at Baruch College on Saturday to win the Public School Athletic League’s girls B Division city championship.
“That was my dream ever since then to get this championship, so I’m happy,” Wallace said. “I’m pretty sure this feels amazing. Right now it hasn’t set in yet. It’s unbelievable. When I get home, I’m sure that it will sink in, and I’ll be happy.”
BC Academy started off slow as East Harlem Pride’s considerable size advantage gave it problems and it fell behind 11-2 to start the game. It took nearly the entire quarter for the Bobcats to adjust, but they did, and they went on a 14-0 run that would eventually give them a 16-11 lead early in the second quarter.
“I think it was nerves,” head coach Kristin Conlon said of the slow start. “They’re the defending champion; they’re a lot bigger and a lot stronger so it was nerves. We just needed that one bucket to kind of relax everybody. We got that — then we went on a roll and went from there.”
Led by six points from Wallace, four from Shajuana Henry and four from Shaina Brown, the Bobcats went on another 14-0 run and had a 37-24 lead going into the fourth quarter. East Harlem Pride wasn’t finished, though, and literally ran through a few Bobcats to get back into the game as it cut the lead to three points with 3:38 left to play.
“The clock could not go fast enough,” Conlon said. “It was just so slow and very nerve wracking, but the girls held on. We’ve had a lot of close games this year, so I think that played a huge factor in knowing how to keep our composure even though they’re going on a run.”
Henry led BC Academy with 19 points, Wallace had 12 and Brown had 11. For East Harlem Pride, Daisha Davis led with 18 points, and Brashawnda Burrus and Nyasha Howard each had nine.
The win was also revenge for last year’s championship game where East Harlem Pride beat Brooklyn College Academy for the B title at LIU Brooklyn. Last season the girls were excited just to have made it that far so they were happy for the experience. They were undefeated last year and again this year, so they knew how good they could be and wouldn’t settle this time around.
“This year it was business,” Conlon said. “Every day was business. They were focused in practice, focused during warm ups. It was just the idea of wanting to get what we thought we deserved last year.”
