STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Nizayah Jordan had such a clear path to the basket, he actually had time to think about what was happening.<\/p>\n
You tend to do these things when you\u2019re going for the 1,000th point of your career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was going through my mind was \u2018don\u2019t blow the layup,\u2019’ he said matter-of-factly. <\/p>\n
He wouldn\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n
Jordan, who scored a game-high 28 points, became Staten Island\u2019s newest 1,000-point club member after hitting the uncontested layup in transition as McKee\/Staten Island Tech rolled to a 81-53 PSAL 3A victory over visiting Tottenville Monday in New Dorp.<\/p>\n
Jordan, who was 7 for 8 from the free-throw line, had plenty of help in MSIT\u2019s scoring column. Lucas Gavin (15 points), Jayden Chen (10 points) and Dalton Cherubin (10 points) also contributed offensively for the Gulls (12-6 overall), who forged a second-place tie in division play with the Pirates (both 7-3).<\/p>\n
But it was Jordan who took centerstage after becoming the 11th Seagulls player and 132nd Islander to land on the coveted 1,000-point list.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means everything to me. Coming into high school, this is something that I wanted to do and I\u2019m glad that I was able to accomplish it,\u2019’ said Jordan, whose mom, Nakia, and brother, Nayshawn, were in attendance Monday. \u201dI couldn\u2019t have done it without my teammates and coaches, who put the ball in my hands and trusted me for the last three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t nervous before the game,\u2019’ the senior admitted. \u201dI just let the game come to me and my teammates did a great job finding me when I was open.\u2019’<\/p>\n
Jordan is averaging 17.1 ppg with 33 three-pointers in 15 games. The three-year varsity player missed three contests earlier this season because of an ankle injury and after Monday\u2019s performance, head coach Charlie Donohue believes he\u2019s finally fully returning to form.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great for him to be able to accomplish something like this after spending three years on varsity. It\u2019s not an easy thing \u2014 it\u2019s a journey of staying healthy and trying to stay eligible and, on top of it, trying to score as many points as he does,\u2019’ said Donohue. \u201cHe\u2019s been with me the last three years. He\u2019s done a good job being a leader for us, especially this year, and again, it\u2019s been good seeing him out there moving a bit better after returning (10 games ago) from that ankle injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long road.\u2019’<\/p>\n
The Seagulls owned a 19-9 lead right out of the gate, then opened the second quarter with a pivotal 15-6 run that helped them grab control. <\/p>\n
Jordan spear-headed the high tempo run with eight points and midway through the period, teammate Ray Guerriero grabbed a defensive rebound and instantly outletted the ball to Terence Legrand on the left side. Legrand proceeded to find a streaking Jordan in transition on the opposite side of the court and he hit a layup to not only eclipse the 1,000-point mark, but give the Seagulls a commanding 34-15 lead with 3:20 left in the half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to shoot a three to hit the mark, but I was just taking what the defense gave me,\u2019’ Jordan said. \u201dRay, Terence and I talked about one of them assisting me for my 1,000th point and I\u2019m really glad one of them got to do it. It definitely makes it that more special knowing it came off teamwork.\u2019’<\/p>\n
\u201cIt absolutely means more since the basket came off a play where they shared the ball,\u2019’ added Donohue. \u201dWe\u2019re always preaching teamwork and that they need each other. It was good to see something like that at that moment. It\u2019ll always be fun to go back and watch that clip.\u2019’<\/p>\n
MSIT led 38-20 at halftime, but the Pirates opened the second half with an 8-2 run. When Danny Garcia hit three free throws with 6:18 left in the period, MSIT\u2019s lead was down to 12 (40-28).<\/p>\n
But Jordan broke the spell with a pair of free throws and Cherubin followed with a three-point play that put the lead back to 17 (45-28) and the Seagulls cruised the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the way you start, it\u2019s how you finish. For us coming out of the gate without (Guerriero or Cherubin) because of football, we took on some real big challenges without important guys,\u2019’ added Donohue, whose team has won 9 of 10 heading into Monday. \u201dWe took our licks early, but we always wanted to find a way to get better and I think we\u2019re moving in the direction of playing our best ball. I\u2019m excited to see where this team is going to be come (the start of the SIHSL Tournament).\u2019’<\/p>\n
NOTES: Antonio Tarantino and Zyeveon Miller paced Tottenville\u2019s offensive attack with 13 and 10 points, respectively … Legrand and Guerriero added seven points apiece for MSIT … The Seagulls won the battle of the boards, 41-34, behind Cherubin (11), Jordan (seven) and Guerriero (five). Tottenville was led by Shiloh Ezderman (seven) and Elias Souleidis (five) … MSIT connected on 18 of 24 free-throw attempts behind Jordan and Chen (4 for 4); The Tots struggled from the charity stripe after finishing 11 for 25 (Garcia 3 for 4) … The Pirates had 16 turnovers, MSIT 21 … Guerriero, who is averaging 14.6 ppg since joining MSIT eight games ago, was ejected after a brief skirmish early in the third quarter. The senior must now serve a two-game suspension. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Nizayah Jordan had such a clear path to the basket, he actually had time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-98622","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\/98622","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=98622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}