American Studies basketball aims for first title

Posted

The gym in the Old Gymnasium Building on the campus of Lehman College will never be confused with walking into Madison Square Garden or any other upscale hoop haven. The court looks as though it hasn’t had a paint job since the Reagan administration. The old wooden seats in the balconies at either end of the court appear to be from the 1930s when the school was founded (when it was the Bronx campus of Hunter College) and the scoreboard — well, the fact that it was sitting on the floor in a corner of the gym told you all you needed to know about whether it was game-ready or not.

But none of that bothers the boys’ basketball team from the High School of American Studies. To the Senators, this is just home.

“In some ways, it’s a little part of our personality,” said senior Dylan Klein. “You walk in here and nothing is nice. The bleachers aren’t pretty and they’re dusty, there’s a lot of paint missing from the floor and the scoreboard doesn’t work. But our team is tough and you don’t just come in here and get an easy win.”

Grace Dodge High School was the latest opponent to learn that lesson when American Studies, despite not scoring a single point in the fourth quarter, pulled out a 43-40 victory in overtime late last week to all but sew up the Bronx ‘B-I’ Division title. The Senators have a two-game lead over Dodge with just three games remaining in the regular season and they swept the season series from the Panthers.

“That was a hard-fought win,” American Studies coach Michael Hamlett said. “Both teams knew what was at stake. This was a lot harder than the first time we played them.” The Senators defeated Grace by 12 points earlier in the season.

But American Studies (10-1) made things a lot harder than it needed to as the Senators’ normally dependable offense went into a deep freeze in the fourth quarter and allowed Grace to rally to force the overtime.

High School of American Studies, Dylan Klein, Michael Hamlett, Sean Brennan
Page 1 / 2

Comments