STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Petrides watched all of its nine-point, third-quarter lead disappear and actually trailed Port Richmond by two late in regulation when Sonyboy Zintamus gave them new life. <\/p>\n
The junior guard buried 2 of 4 freebies in the final 15.7 seconds to force overtime, but you got a sense the momentum was still on the Raiders\u2019 side entering the extra session.<\/p>\n
Did the Panthers have it in them to stage a late run and pull out their first victory of the season?<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course,\u2019’ said Aiden Gonzalez, another junior guard, in reference to staying the course against the Raiders. \u201dI believe in my guys, I believe in my team and our ability to score.\u2019’ <\/p>\n
And then he walked the walk.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez\u2019s three-pointer 16 seconds into OT got the host Panthers off to a good start before they proceeded to nail seven free throws to squeeze out a 69-64 PSAL 3A division victory over PR in Sunnyside.<\/p>\n
Petrides\u2019 balanced attack was led by Daynell Rowland (19 points), Kareem Nesbitt (16 points), Gonzalez (13 points) and Zintamus (13 points) as it earned its first win in four attempts. <\/p>\n
In other words, it couldn\u2019t have come at a better time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew they were going to make runs. They\u2019re very athletic and they were going to pressure us,\u2019’ said Petrides head coach Nick Lezoli of the Raiders. \u201dWe just preached composure, take care of the basketball and hopefully hit free throws and we thankfully hit enough at the end.\u2019’<\/p>\n
After Zintamus hit a driving layup in the waning minutes of the third, Petrides owned a 43-34 lead. The Raiders, however, staged a 10-0 Mekhi Hines-led run (five points) that gave the visitors a 44-43 lead with 5:14 left in regulation.<\/p>\n
Hines, who finished with a team-high 18 points, hit back-to-back buckets in a 20-second span late to give PR a 57-55 advantage with just over a minute to play.<\/p>\n
Zintamus, however, hit two freebies late to knot the score. PR got one last look, but a game-winning three-point attempt was off the mark and the game went into overtime.<\/p>\n
Just 16 ticks into the extra session, Gonzalez got the ball in the right corner and launched a shot that hit nothing but the bottom of the net to put the Panthers up 60-57.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw the help defender (out of position) and I was just ready for the shot,\u2019’ explained Gonzalez. \u201dWhen I saw it go in everything just went black. Everything was quiet and I was motivated to get my team up and hopefully (we can hold on and) win after that.\u2019’<\/p>\n
\u201cA great way to start, getting the lead. There was no hesitation and his shot was fluid,\u2019’ said Lezoli. \u201dWe trust him. He\u2019s probably our best pure shooter. We told him, \u2018if you have a good look, let it fly.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great way to start OT.\u2019’<\/p>\n
Port instantly responded when Kasiem Cromwell scored off an inbounds play, but the Panthers went on to score the next six points behind Rowland (two free throws), Nesbitt (two free throws) and Zintamus (drive) to make it 66-59 with 1:23.<\/p>\n
Nesbitt then proceeded to sink three more free throws in the final 50 seconds to help preserve the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying to stay calm and hit shots,\u2019’ explained Nesbitt, whose team played the last 3:13 of OT without Rowland (fouled out).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe trust him when he\u2019s on the line and fortunately he hit enough,\u201d said Lezoli of Nesbitt, who canned 5 of 8 from the charity stripe with the game on the line. \u201dWe trust him with the ball the most because we knew he wouldn\u2019t turn it over. Thankfully he hit enough free throws to help us keep a comfortable lead.\u2019’<\/p>\n
NOTES: Port Richmond\u2019s fourth-quarter comeback was fueled by Emmanuel Gay, who scored nine of his 10 points in the final period and overtime. The guard buried two treys and sank 5 of 7 freebies in the last 12 minutes. He also drew a pair of offensive fouls in the contest … Port Richmond owned a 48-33 advantage in rebounding behind Cromwell (13), Gay (seven), Dyshawn Cartagena (six) and Syncere Holland (six). Nesbitt and Gonzalez led the Panthers with seven and five caroms, respectively … Both teams struggled from the free-throw line. PR was 22 for 37 (Gay 6 for 9); Petrides was 14 for 28 (Rowland 5 for 6). Petrides had 14 turnovers, PR 19 … Port Richmond scored four baskets off inbounds plays under the Panthers\u2019 basket (Hines had two, including a three-point play).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Petrides watched all of its nine-point, third-quarter lead disappear and actually trailed Port Richmond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-65544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65544","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=65544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}