Strong defense drives DeWitt to victory

Last season, Chris Ballerini’s Governors basketball team steamrolled its way through the Bronx ‘A’ West Division, winning 15 of 16 games and advancing all the way to the Public School Athletic League (PSAL) city quarterfinals before a controversial call cost DeWitt Clinton a spot in the semifinals.

Through their first 11 games this season, Clinton enjoyed similar success. With nine wins and just one division loss, Clinton is again near the top of the division. As the Governors rolled into Herbert H. Lehman High School late last week, it presented another opportunity for Clinton to show it is one of the better programs in the PSAL again this year.

As it turned out, Lehman was no match for Clinton as the Governors jumped out to a commanding 39-21 lead at the intermission before waltzing home with a convincing 72-41 thrashing of the Lions. The win improved Clinton’s record to 10-2 overall, but more importantly to Ballerini, this team is starting to have the look of last year’s juggernaut.

“We had a special team last year and these guys are starting to remind me of that team the way they’re playing,” Ballerini said.

The outcome at Lehman was never in doubt as Clinton grabbed a double-digit lead midway through the first half quarter and never looked back as the Lions simply had no answer for Isiah Ryan (14 points), Yannie Gunthorpe (14 points) and William Paradise (13 points), among others. The Governors’ game plan called for them to jump on Lehman from the start and not let up, and Clinton executed the plan flawlessly.

“Going into an opposing gym, you want to jump on teams early,” Ballerini said. “We saw that they had just beaten a good Taft team, so getting off to a good start was imperative. And once we did that, the kids got more comfortable and everything became easier. The shooting became a lot easier and the kids became more confident.”