Then the whistle blew. Foul on Cenac Jr. Then Cenac Jr. slammed the ball into the floor and it bounced high above his head. The whistle blew again. Technical foul on Cenac Jr. Njie made his two free throws, Eli Greenberg made one of the two technical free throws, and, after the Elks inbounded the ball, Njie was fouled again. He made two more free throws and the Elks were 64-59 winners over Isidore Newman in the day’s final game at the Beacon Orthopaedics Flyin’ To The Hoop.
“It’s a lot of pressure, but I feel like you should hold the mindset of not letting it affect you,” said Njie, who scored eight points. “Just lock in on your free throw and make it.”
The Elks (9-4) played overtime for the second straight night. On Saturday on their home floor, missed free throws hurt them in a 94-92 double overtime loss to Cleveland St. Ignatius, which was in town to also play at Flyin’ To The Hoop. On Sunday the Elks made 13 of 15.
“We don’t like making it easy,” Elks coach Brook Cupps said. “I thought our guys did a good job of being resilient and continued to play.”
The game saw 10 lead changes and 14 ties. Njie tied the score at 55 with 1:30 left in regulation. Isidore threw the ball out of bounds with 59 seconds left, and the Elks worked for the final shot. As expected the ball was in the hands of senior Jonathan Powell. He scored 24 points despite and off shooting night (9 of 24). Powell tried to attack the basket but the defense made him settle for a contested 15-footer that fell short at the buzzer.
The Elks have only Powell, who will college ball at Xavier, and Njie back as full-time varsity players after making three straight trips to the Division I state tournament and winning it in 2021. Cupps, however, put together another difficult schedule in an effort to help this team improve and get ready for tournament play.
“These are all good for us,” he said. “We’re just trying to get better right now. We can take these and be better when we go play our next game and be better in practice this week.”
The new varsity players, including starters Eli Greenberg (11 points), Ethan Greenberg and Jamar Montgomery (11 points), are learning what it takes to execute the details and play varsity basketball against top competition.
“Over the last two or three weeks we’ve made progress in key areas,” Cupps said. “Sometimes those don’t show up as plays in the game. What we’ve got to learn how to do is be more consistent where we’re playing at a high level possession after possession.”
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