JFK knocks off Evander, looks for championship revenge

A Thursday night basketball victory over the Evander Childs Tigers means the John F. Kennedy campus’ Knights will get a chance to avenge last year’s Bronx Borough Championship loss to the Wings Academy on Saturday, Feb. 14.

A dominating second-half performance in the semi-final game against Evander Childs gave JFK a 70-45 win. The Terrace View Avenue team will face Wings Academy for the third time in the past four years.

“It feels real good going into the championship,” senior transfer Darryl Williams said. “I’m just trying to beat Wings [Academy] this year.”

Both JFK ad Evander Childs came out firing. JFK’s Isaac Arhin started it off knocking down a corner three-pointer, then Evander’s Shamar Anderson answered right back with a three of his own. Evander’s first 12 points came off of the triple, but Arhin and JFK weathered the storm.

Arhin scored seven points in the first quarter and added a series of steals and rebounds to give his team a one-point lead going into the second quarter.

The second quarter belonged to Vinace Zougrana. Just a minute into the quarter, Zougrana made a crossover move toward the rim, launched himself and made a monster dunk to give his team a three-point lead.

“I just had to [dunk],” Zoungrana said. “The crowd had me there. I had to jump. He was just under me, and I threw it on him. That’s all.” 

“We’ve been trying to get him to play big, and he hasn’t been playing big,” JFK head coach Johnny Mathis said. “If he just continued, he’s going to be one of the best in the city. Because if he continues to play up – especially when you play this type of competition – there’s nobody up here.”

While JFK’s bench shot up to cheer, Zougrana sprinted back on defense and blocked a shot. He scored five points in the second quarter as JFK took a six-point lead into the half.

The Knights jumped out to a 12-2 run to take a 16-point lead in the third and didn’t look back. A full-court defense hassled the Tigers into turnovers and rushed shots on offense.