Lincoln Blasts Boys Girls
Keyed by Sebastian Telfair's 27 points, Lincoln
High School rolled to a 68-42 win in the PSAL
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semifinals at St. John's University Saturday to earn a
berth in the PSAL championships next weekend against
Gary Ervin and Paul Robeson. The Railsplitters jumped
on their Brooklyn rivals early, parlaying 14 first
half points by the precocious sophoomre point guard
and seven first half points by wing Jamal Dart into a
29-15 halftime advantage.
"We didn't want a close game where anything could
happen," said Telfair. "We wanted to start off playing
really hard."
Lincoln opened the third quarter with a 22-7 to
crack the game wide open, as 6'5'' wing Elliah Clarke
connected on three-pointers on consecutive possessions
and the team collected a slew of points in transition.
The spurt pushed Lincoln's lead to 49-22 with little
over a minute to play in the third quarter, and the
game was essentially out of reach.
Lincoln's lead would balloon to 30 points at 62-31
with 3:03 to play in the fourth quarter, as Dart
knocked down a three from the corner off a feed from
Telfair.
Tiny Morton's team pushed the issue all afternoon,
and the up-tempo pace was to their liking. Telfair was
very active in transition, converting on twisting
lay-ups, and slipping scores of slick passes onto
teammates.
Boys and Girls could generate little offense save
for senior power forward Amadou Fall's dirty work
inside. The bruising 6'5'' 235 lber, who has gotten
some looks from the Ivy and Patriot League, led the
Kangaroos with 17 points, all from within the paint.
Clarke snared his share of rebounds for Lincoln, using
his athleticism and craftiness to swipe a couple of
caroms from right under Fall's nose. Clarke scored 14
points for Lincoln, as the versatile wing showed
good-range and the ability to score from inside and
out.
Telfair piloted Lincoln's offense with aplomb,
showing a maturity well beyond his years.
"You might call it maturity, but I call it
experience," said Lincoln coach Tiny Morton. "It's his
second year, and he's seen a lot of things."
Despite Boys and Girls size advantage inside with
the 6'5'' Fall and 6'7'' senior Brian Franklyn,
Lincoln's quickness and the game's frenetic pace were
to their advantage.
"We had played some bigger teams in South Carolina
earlier this year, so we were prepared," said Morton.
"We kind of keyed on Amadou(Fall) a little bit."
Lincoln's berth in the championship game will mark
Telfair's first trip to the Garden as a non-spectator.
"I think this is the reason he came to Lincoln,"
said Morton. "Last year we made the semifinals, and he
wanted to do better and go further."