By Marc Raimondi
The Patriots, without the four Division I-caliber players they graduated last year and anyone taller than 5-foot-8, put a scare into the Vikings. They just got worn down – physically and mentally – and couldn't sustain the lead, falling, 53-47, in a cross-borough 'AA' game.”I just told my kids I was very disappointed,” Francis Lewis coach Mike Eisenberg said. “[South Shore] is the team with the second best record in the league and I told them we chickened out. I thought we chickened out in the fourth quarter.”Francis Lewis's experience – Eisenberg's five seniors got limited action in previous years – was readily apparent in the fourth quarter. The Patriots lost the lead, got it back on a Sylvia Davis (11 points, 7 assists) layup and free throw, before giving it away again on a hoop and foul by South Shore senior Kamiel Brown (25 points, 18 rebounds) to make it 47-44 with 1:16 left.”[I told my team], 'Don't let them dribble drive, don't let them dribble drive, don't let them dribble drive,'” Eisenberg said. “What did they do? They dribble drived.”But Lewis (4-3) had a chance to tie on its final possession when Baytani Newman missed the second of two free throws that kept the game at 50-47 with 38.7 seconds left. But sophomore Andree De Leon, who played a great game altogether (11 points, 14 rebounds) against South Shore (7-1), didn't box out Newman and she got her own rebound. Angel Porter made one of two free throws to make it a two-possession game and effectively putting it out of reach.”We missed a couple of layups and I think we got scared and we backed down,” Davis said. “Instead of taking it to the hole and getting 'and 1s.' We missed a couple layups and we just fell apart.”
