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By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
Bishop Loughlin’s Imani Tate was already in the air when she caught the inbound pass in the final seconds of the game.
Her fade away shot near the baseline found nothing but net with 2.5 seconds left to give Brooklyn a thrilling 78–77 win over the Queens/Long Island team in the girls final of the Wheelchair Classic basketball tournament at York College on Wednesday night.
“That’s my favorite shot,” said Tate, who is headed to Albany next year. “I was like, I’m just going to put it up. I knew it was going in.”
It capped a 27-point night for Tate, who scored 22 points in the Mayor’s Cup game two weeks earlier. Bishop Ford’s Aaliyah Jones had 17 points and Benjamin Banneker’s Africa Williams added 10 points.
The three-day event is about more that basketball. Proceeds from the event go to the Coler-Goldwater specialty hospital for wheelchairs-bound patients. All of the players visit the hospital in the days leading up to the games.
“It was an amazing, humbling experience,” Tate said. “Seeing people in the wheelchairs eventually being able to walk — it gives you a lot of respect for them. You want to play for people like them.”
In the Wheelchair Classic boy’s final, Abraham Lincoln Isaiah Whitehead scored 10 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter, including seven in the final four minutes, to lead the Brooklyn all-stars to an 85–82 victory over the Bronx/Westchester squad.
“My team needed a ball handler and a scorer so I just stepped up,” said Whitehead.
The junior Railsplitter took the game in his own hands and helped his team break the fall court pressure. He completed a conventional 3-point play, hit a contested trey and another long jumper to help tie the score at 79–79 with 2:01 left to play.
His two free throws shortly afterward put Brooklyn up for good at 81–80 and his block of Mt. Vernon’s Joshua Doughty allowed his team to win the game at the free throw line.
Michael Vigilance added 10 points. Fellow Lincoln teammate Trevonn Morton and South Shore’s David Tait both chipped in nine points.
The all-star Brooklyn squad wasn’t particularly surprised by the win.
“It’s kind of regular for Brooklyn,” Whitehead said. “We win everything. It’s coming to play with these guys who we [at Lincoln] battled throughout the season and play together and show people that Brooklyn’s the best.”
Reach reporter Joseph Staszewski at jstaszewski@cnglocal.com. Follow him on twitter @cng_staszewski.