In mid January, Carlos DeJesus was waiting to be cleared eligibility wise after emigrating to America from the Dominican Republic in September. Darius Ward was feverishly working to get academically eligible. And the John F. Kennedy boys basketball had fallen on hard times, stuck near the bottom of PSAL Bronx AA.
What a difference a few weeks can make. DeJesus and Ward are now eligible and the Knights are riding high, winners of six straight league contests after Friday’s rousing 65-53 victory at Manhattan Center in East Harlem.
“We have a whole ‘nother team now,” junior forward Muhammed Ahmed said.
The two figured prominently in Kennedy’s latest impressive win. Ward scored 15 points, including a half-court shot off the glass to end the third quarter, while DeJesus notched 11 points, 10 assists and six rebounds and sank consecutive 3-pointers to jumpstart a victory-clinching 14-1, fourth-quarter run that turned a two-point lead into a 15-point stranglehold.
“Carlos is the key,” longtime Kennedy coach Johnny Mathis said. “He can do it. He just doesn’t shoot a lot.”
That’s not to say the Knights are at their peak quite yet. Chemistry is still an issue and Mathis is far from happy with his team’s rebounding, as his repeated barking at forwards would illustrate.
Comparatively speaking, though, this Kennedy team is hardly recognizable from the one that started off so slow.
Scoring isn’t nearly the burden it once was. The Knights (14-8, 11-5 Bronx AA) now have several shot-makers in DeJesus, Ward, David Hardy and Tyshaun Dinkins to ease the burden on junior forward Muhammed Ahmed (15 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks). Ward’s length at 6-foot-2 is also a big plus on the defensive end and DeJesus has begun to gain comfort with his new teammates, the language barrier be damned.
Friday’s victory was particularly important because it came on the road in a hostile environment against a quality foe. Manhattan Center entered play with seven wins in its last eight contests and the one loss was a three-point setback to Harlem powerhouse Wadleigh, which is ranked fifth in the PSAL by The Post.
“As a team we are starting to grow, our chemistry is much better,” Mathis said. “We’re starting to understand what Kennedy basketball is all about. … Next year we can be really good. All our guys are juniors.”
Rams coach Charles Jackson credited Kennedy for its outside shooting display – the Knights hit eight shots from beyond the arc – but also faulted his team’s poor free throw shooting. Manhattan Center, which got 15 points from Timothy Taylor and 13 from Jorden Carter, started out struggling from the line and as its play has improved, so has its accuracy from the charity stripe. Against Kennedy, however, the Rams (11-6) were off target, particularly in the fourth quarter when they went just 2-of-6 from the line.
“That really did us in,” Jackson said. “I just hope we’re not reverting back to the beginning of the year at the foul line. That can really knock you out of ball games.”
Both teams have high hopes for next week’s borough playoffs, especially Kennedy. The Knights draw Bronx A East champion Columbus in the opening round before likely meeting Eagle Academy and possibly Wings after that. Mathis’ club is a combined 0-4 against the two teams, but that was before reinforcements arrived.
“Confidence is high right now,” Ahmed said. “They are gonna see a change when they play against us.”