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By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
It was an astounding comeback, but it still wasn’t enough to put Bedford Academy over the top when the buzzer sounded.
The second-seeded Panthers clawed back from a 15-point, second-quarter deficit to tie the score in the closings seconds of the game on a second-straight trey by senior Darren Thomas — the good feeling was short lived.
A tip in by Eulogio Medina with 14 seconds left gave No. 1 Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School a 56–54 victory in the Public School Athletic League Class A boys’ basketball final Saturday at Long Island University.
“The tip in just went in and it was over,” Thomas said.
The senior guard thought he had done enough to win the game, knocking down two top-of-the-key three-pointers in the final minute to tie things up at 54–54 with 42 seconds remaining. The Panthers did a superb job guarding Wolves center Tyshawn Miles, but with three players blocking his path to the basket, that left Medina open to put back his miss on the weak side.
“Our rotation was a little late on that,” said Bedford coach Robert Phelps. “We had to gamble a little bit and it did hurt us.”
His team had one last chance to tie. Anthony Munson drove right along the right baseline with one second remaining, but the outstretched arms of Miles smothered his shot — and maybe more, in Munson’s opinion.
“I thought I was fouled,” he said. “They didn’t call it.”
Being in position to win the game seemed hard to fathom early in the first quarter. Cold-shooting Bedford (21–2) fell behind 17–2 with 6:40 to go in the second quarter. But the Panthers kept fighting and believed the shots would fall. They ended the first half on a 9–1 run, capped by a three-pointer by Latye Workman at the buzzer that cut the lead down to just 24–20 at the break.
“We had to dig,” Workman said. “We had to pull it from deep within. We had to leave everything on the floor.”
Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (26–0) pushed its lead back to nine with 5:51 to go in the game. In one more furious rally, Bedford responded with an 11–4 run capped by another Thomas three-pointer.
Thomas scored eight of his 17 points in the fourth quarter and Munson added 12 for Bedford. Medina, who earned most-valuable-player honors, led the Wolves with 23 points, and Eddie Polanco chipped in 11.
Bedford was left with an empty feeling when it was over, but Phelps was filled with admiration for his players.
“My guys showed a lot of fortitude and a lot of guts,” Phelps said. “I’m proud of them.”