Scholastic Roundup: Brooklyn is king in PSAL hoops

March 3, 2023 Andy Furman

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Brooklyn’s a good bet in the boys PSAL basketball playoffs.

In fact, one championship was already decided on Valentine’s Day when Metro-Brooklyn Democracy Academy defeated Mott Haven Campus 66-56 at York College in the Multiple Pathways A Division final. Joe Zollo completed their league schedule a perfect 14-0.

Brooklyn has always been a powerhouse in PSAL boys’ basketball. A team from the borough has won 12 of the past 14 titles – five by Lincoln, three by South Shore and Boys & Girls High and one by Jefferson.

The Vikes of South Shore have won the past three and they got-past Jefferson 67-65 in the Brooklyn Borough Championship to earn a No. 2 seed.

Jefferson – ranked No. 4 — reached the borough final topping Eagle Academy Brooklyn 83-80 on a three-point buzzer-beater in the semi-finals.

Eagle Brooklyn, the No. 3 seed fell to South Shore, 77-52 in the City Championship game last March at the Barclays Center.

Benjamin Cardozo is the Queens champ and Murry Bergtraum represents Manhattan.

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Erik Smiles is the new Director of Athletics, Recreation and Intramurals at Brooklyn College. He replaces Bruce Filosa who has served since 1992.

Smiles arrives from Hostos Community College where he served as Director of Athletics, Recreation and Intramurals since 2019.

Prior to Hostos, Smiles was the Head Basketball Coach at LIU – Post (2013-19) – and coached the Pioneers to four East Coast Conference (ECC) Tournament appearances.

Smiles served as men’s basketball coach at Farmingdale State College nine seasons and amassed a career 182-72 won-loss record. He led the Rams to four Skyline regular-season titles and three Skyline Tournament Championships while posting six 20-plus win seasons. The Rams also made the NCAA tournament four times under Smiles, and advanced to the Elite Eight in 2009.

A graduate of Bridgeport University, Smiles was a four-year member of the men’s basketball team. As a coach he’s received a total of eight Coach of the Year awards. He’s a three-time Skyline Coach of the Year, two-time BCANY Co-Coach of the Year, an All-Met Coach of the Year, NABC Coach of the Year and D3Hoops.com Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.

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Brooklyn College women’s basketball team copped the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) championship for a third-straight season topping John Jay 64-58 last week.

BC improves to 19-7 – 14-0 in league play — and extends the Bulldogs’ streak to 46 consecutive victories against CUNYAC opponents.

Tonight (Friday) Brooklyn squares off against Coast-2-Coast Conference champ, Christopher Newport University (26-0) in the first-round of the NCAA DIII basketball tournament, at Newport News, Va. It’s the first-time Newport News has hosted a tournament playoff game since 2017. The winner will advance to the second round, Sunday March 5th against the winner of Elizabethtown University (22-4) and Stevens Institute of Technology (22-5).

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St. Francis Brooklyn women’s swimming and diving completed action at the Northeast Conference Championships, Saturday, finishing seventh overall. The Terriers were led senior Mariajose Lopez who won a bronze in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Her time of 17:17.28 was just over a second faster than her closest suitor. She’s a native of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Elayna Pistrin, a sophomore from Victoria, Australia also made the podium. She grabbed the silver in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:18.91. Boel Bergquist, a freshman from Lomma, Sweden qualified for the “A” final, taking seventh. Jenna Pearse, a senior from Johannesburg, South Africa placed 20th. Central Connecticut State won the event with 659.5 points, followed by Wagner (601.5) and LIU (520.5).

Four LIU program records fell at the event, last Friday night.

Maaike Broersma produced a time of 53.83 in the women’s 100-back, topping the previous mark of 54.06.

Venna Anderson had a time of 28.37 in the 50-breast, breaking the previous record of 29.30.

The 400-medley relay team of Broersma, Anderson, Ella Johnson and Aidan Condit set a program record of 3:43.19, topping the previous record of 3:45.03.

On the men’s side, the 400-medley relay team of Benny Karlsson, Giannis Venetos, Alejandro Pascual Del Cid and Emilio Garcia achieved a time of 3:17.13, topping the previous mark of 3:18.58.

Broersma was declared Swimmer of the Meet on the women’s side after winning all three of her events and becoming the only swimmer at the competition to achieve an NCAA B cut at the meet.

On the final day of competition, Broersma won the women’s 200 back with a program-record time of 1:56.85 to achieve the B cut. The previous LIU record had been 1:58.31.

On the men’s side Saturday, Stephen Taylor set a program record in the 200 breast at 1:59.82, topping the old mark of 2:00.43.

And the 400 free relay team of Emilio Garcia, Drew Ladner, Porter LeVasseur and Alejandro Pascual Del Cid set a program record at 3:00.84, topping the old mark of 3:01.08.

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The LIU men’s hockey team pounded Alaska Anchorage, 6-2 Sunday night at Northwell Health Ice Center as Cade Mason, Jordan Di Cicco, Isaiah Fox, Josh Zary, Patriks Marcinkevics and Noh Kane scored.

Kira Bucker struck out 11 straight batters at one-point en route to a one-hit shut-out against Fordham Sunday for the LIU women’s softball team. LIU beat the Rams 3-0 and followed with an 8-5 win over Harvard.

The Sharks won four of five games during their trip to the Winthrop-hosted Garnet & Gold Tournament.

Buckner’s 11 consecutive strikeouts were a program record. And LIU coach Roy Kortmann could not recall if there had ever been a previous 13-strikeout performance in a seven-inning game in the school’s Division I history.

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The LIU women’s gymnastics team produced a score of 195.650 Sunday to finish second of three teams at Pratt’s Recreation Center. NC State scored 196.275 while Temple scored 195.175.

Syd Morris had a 39.300 on the all-around; Katy Koopman had the Sharks’ top score on the vault at 9.800; Mara Titarsolej scored a meet-best 9.950 on the bars; Morris had a meet-best 9.900 on the beam and Morris, Lauren Miller and Amanda Loo each scored 9.825 on the floor to lead LIU.

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The No. 6-seed Pratt Institute men’s basketball team saw their 2022-23 season come to close with a 76-43 defeat to No.3-seeded Salisbury University in the quarterfinals of the Coast-2-Coast Athletic Conference Basketball Championship at Kaiser Permanente Arena, last week.

Pratt was paced by All-C2C Second Team selections sophomore Cameron Hatcher and junior Patrick O’Gorman. Hatcher scored a game-high 15 points with six boards; O’Gorman added 12.

O’Gorman finished fourth in the C2C in scoring average with 16.8 points-per-game and led the league in assists (4.4 per-game). He joined the 1,000-point scoring club reaching the mark in 62 games and becoming the first Cannoneer to reach the milestone since Andrew Yaglesnski in 2018.

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Kingsborough Community College defeated JV Ferrum College 7-4 last week in baseball. Shawn Baxter and Elijah Silver each had ninth-inning RBIs for the Wave.

Freylin Nunez was the winning pitcher – the righthander lasted three and two-thirds innings, allowing three hits and one run while walking one. Jayson McCoy threw one inning in relief.

Francesco Bonvini started the game for the Wave – went four-and-third innings, allowing no runs on two hits and striking out seven.

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St. Francis Brooklyn women’s water polo team split games with Princeton and Villanova last Saturday – The Terriers fell to Princeton 17-8 and topped Villanova, 12-8.

Sofia Kolovou, a junior center from Athens, Greece scored four goals in the Princeton loss; junior Anja Miskovic from Belgrade, Serbia scored five goals in the win over Villanova.

The Terriers are 9-1 on the season.

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The Cougars of Medgar-Evers upped their men’s volleyball record to 2-1 with a 15-25, 25-16, 25-14, 19-25 and 15-9 win over SUNY Purchase last week in Purchase, New York.

Senior Sebastian Perez registered match-highs of 26 kills and three service-aces to go along with nine digs. Carlos Abreu notched a match-high 23 digs to go along with 10 kills and six assists, and Isaac Akindipe added seven kills and four block assists.

Senior setter Austin Romeo finished with a match-high 40 assists to go along with eight digs.

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Fred Grasso, former basketball captain on Lafayette High’s 1962 championship team that placed third in New York City would be celebrating his 78th birthday, March 12th.

He was a tremendous high school coach, who later served as an assistant to Rick Pitino with the New York Knicks. He had an outstanding career at Hofstra and was invited to tryout camp with the Denver Rockets in the American Basketball Association.

He passed in 2017.

His son, Jared is varsity basketball coach at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR