Sophomore Iggy Izevbuwa scored the game-winning basket via a tap-in at the buzzer as Port Richmond stunned host Curtis with a 59-57 PSAL-SIHSL victory Monday in St. George.
The victory, which helped the Raiders improve to 6-5 in the Island’s PSAL division (8-10 overall), enabled Port to defeat Curtis for the first time in recent memory.
Izevbuwa finished with a team-high 18 points for the Raiders while teammates Maxdylan Butler and Tariq Tuggle contributed 12 points apiece.
Robbie Mitchell tallied a game-high 21 points for the Warriors.
"It’s really good to see the kids play the way they did today,'' said pleased PR head coach Jeremy Smalls, who’s in his fourth season coaching the Raiders’ varsity. "They’ve been buying into what we’ve been trying to teach them and all of their hard work has paid off to this point.
"It’s really nice to see them get a big win like this.''
The Warriors, who played without leading scorer Michael Oyekanmi (flu), received a big boost late when Alijah England (14 points) scored to tie the game at 57 with just 22.4 seconds left in regulation.
Smalls called for time and after PR inbounded the ball, the Raiders attempted to isolate leading scorer Maxdylan Butler for a pick-and-roll and the lefty-shooting senior eventually pulled up for a jumper and the win. The ball bounced on the rim twice before Izevbuwa jumped and tapped home the rebound for the game-winning bucket as time expired.
"I’m really happy he had the sense of mind to just tap it and not grab it, plant himself and go right back up,'' said Smalls of Izevbuwa. "As soon as he touched it (with the tap) the horn sounded. There was no time to do anything else and I’m glad he reacted the way he did.
"It was huge.''
The Warriors took an early 7-0 lead, but after Smalls called for time, his troops settled down and scored the next eight points to get into a rhythm.
"It really was a game of runs and it felt like whoever had the ball last would win,'' said Smalls of the game that saw the Warriors own a 32-31 lead at halftime and the score tied 47-47 after three periods. "The game went back and forth the whole time, right to the very end.''
Port Richmond’s Quavir Coleman and Basim Erzouki teamed for another 14 points for the Raiders.