STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Luke DeVito didn\u2019t have to think twice when someone asked if he envisioned how he preferred to score the 1,000th point of his career.<\/p>\n
He admitted to plotting how he wanted it done and although it never came to fruition, he got a laugh while discussing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, it\u2019s funny because I was thinking about it,\u2019’ the four-year varsity player said. \u201dThere\u2019s always this move I do in practice that coach (Mike Mazella) hates that I do \u2014 a spin fade away. So I was thinking, maybe late in the game, maybe a post move when I do the spin fade away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely would have been a bitter sweet moment, in my opinion,\u2019’ he said while still chuckling. \u201dHe wouldn\u2019t have been happy, but that is what I\u2019ve always thought. I even told my brother a few weeks ago.\u2019’<\/p>\n
Mazella\u2019s reaction?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe certainly knows his coach,\u2019’ laughed the 22nd-year mentor. \u201dHe might have envisioned it that way and I certainly would have celebrated and smiled and said, \u2018nice shot, but it could have been a nice three-point play on that one instead of the fade-away.\u2019’<\/p>\n
DeVito never got the opportunity to replicate a move made famous by Michael Jordan, but he did reach the coveted 1,000-point plateau last Friday\u2019s during the Tigers\u2019 heart-breaking 59-56 ACIS championship loss to top-seeded Dwight at Grace Church in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
DeVito, who needed 10 points to reach the mark, scored via a layup in the third quarter and the game was temporarily stopped to acknowledge his milestone. The 17-year-old became the 20th SIA player to reach a grand, as well as the second this season. Just about a month ago, senior guard Danny Nowak also scored the 1,000th point of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels great. That was definitely one of my goals since I was young \u2014 to be a 1,000-point scorer,\u2019’ said Devito. \u201cI actually wrote it on a piece of paper on my wall to be a 1,000-point scorer.\u2019’<\/p>\n
Mazella, of course, was thrilled to see the 6-foot-3 DeVito reached the mark, but also praised him for his all-around contributions to the Tigers\u2019 program.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so proud of him and how far he\u2019s come as a player. As one of the captains of our team, he\u2019s provided some great leadership for us this year,\u2019’ said Mazella. \u201dHe\u2019s a four-year varsity player and I never really considered him as just a scorer. He\u2019s really a jack-of-all-trades, the kind of guy that, because of his length and quickness, I usually put him on the other team\u2019s most dangerous player. I think he likes the challenge on the defensive end more so then he does scoring, which makes him a pretty unique player.<\/p>\n
\u201c(When you think of the 1,000-point club), you think of three-point shooters or guys who can dominate down low. He is a three-level scorer for sure (three-pointers, mid-range and transition), but we can also rely on him as a shutdown defensive player and he\u2019s got to be one of the top closers for us and maybe Staten Island high school basketball. He just makes plays down the stretch that are winning plays, ones that put us over the top.\u2019’<\/p>\n
Facing their largest deficit of the championship game, SIA mounted a third-quarter comeback and DeVito was right in the middle of its big run. The former Huguenot resident drained a three, then took a Gabe Moschella feed while cutting to the basket down the lane. DeVito went right up and hit a layup to reach the mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at the top of the key and made a nice cut and was wide open,\u2019’ DeVito said. \u201dI went right up with it and was able to hit a nice little layup.\u2019’<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last few years, we haven\u2019t been a great halfcourt team and we\u2019re still not. We\u2019re at our best when we\u2019re in transition,\u2019’ said Mazella. \u201dJust looking at Luke\u2019s skill set and the skill set of guys like (Moschella and Nowak), we run kind of an open, five-out kind of offense that relies on hard cuts and reading your teammates. We thought that would be best for us and I\u2019m happy that Luke kind of embraced that style of play. He makes the smart plays, the smart cuts and I\u2019m happy he got it that way.\u2019’<\/p>\n
DeVito, who is the ultimate team player, reiterated again how he would have gladly scored no points if it meant winning the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was my mindset the whole game \u2014 winning the game,\u2019’ said the Freehold, N.J., resident. \u201cThey stopped the game for me, which I deeply honored, but I didn\u2019t want that to happen. I wanted it to be more about the team. I just wanted everything to be team-oriented because (my teammates) have sacrificed everything for each other and I just wanted it to be about us winning it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fell short, but that was my goal all along.\u2019’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Luke DeVito didn\u2019t have to think twice when someone asked if he envisioned how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-138023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}