Boys & Girls Win Semifinal, Prepare to Defend City Crown at MSG

Assistant coach Gene Carroll adopted a catchy nickname for Malik Nichols over the course of the season based on his propensity to hoist shots outside his range. Whenever Nichols would miss a three pointer in practice, Carroll called out “once-a-week Malik” and reminded him that’s how often he makes those shots.   

On Wednesday night, in the biggest moment of his high school basketball career, Nichols filled his weekly quota with ice in his veins.

With less than three minutes remaining in the semifinal game of the Public School Athletic League city playoffs, Nichols calmly sank the game-winning three point shot, then sealed Boys & Girls High School’s 53-48 win over Wings Academy with a pair of free throws in the closing seconds.  

"I knew he had it in him," Carroll said. "I spoke to him this morning and said you have to make the difference for us to win and he made the difference."

It was a dominant fourth quarter for the Hofstra-bound senior, who scored nine of his team high 17 points in the final period. Nichols also filled up the box score with three steals, three blocks and 12 rebounds.

"He stepped up when he needed to," head coach Ruth Lovelace said. "He made some big shots, he had some big rebounds, he had some good defensive stops. He deserves a lot of that credit for us to move forward today."

With the win, Boy & Girls punched its ticket to Madison Square Garden and a spot in the city championship game for the second strait year and third time in five years. The Kangaroos will defend its PSAL Championship title on Sunday against rival Abraham Lincoln, which won 56-54 over Benjamin Cardozo High School on Wednesday.

The Kangaroos trailed 40-39 headed into fourth quarter, but Nichols and Mike Taylor, who missed the last six weeks due to an academic suspension, combined for nine strait points to start the final period and built up a 48-40 lead with four minutes remaining.

But Wings quickly pulled back to within one score with five strait points of its own. That's when Nichols, with 2:30 remaining, took a pass from a driving Jeffland Neverson, and pulled up for the wide open 20-footer. The shot seemed to hang in the air like slow motion.  

"To be honest, I kind of said 'Oh no, a three?'" Lovelace said. "But you know what, he was on a roll. He was just feeling it."

It was a bittersweet night for Nichols, whose mother died in January from a sudden heart attack. After the game, Nichols was one of the last players left in the locker room and emerged with red, damp eyes. He was crying, he said, because he was happy the team won, and because he wished his mom was there.  

"Everything is for my mom," Nichols said. "Everything I do. Every time I score. Every time I'm in the class room, I think about my mom."

It has been trying season for the Boys & Girls varsity basketball team following its surprising run to the PSAL title last year. The Kangaroos entered this season ranked atop the New York City rankings, where it stayed for much of the season.

The Kangaroos even climbed to as high as 15th in the country at one point, thanks to several wins against national powerhouses in high profile tournaments in Myrtle Beach, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Springfield.

But it has been without several key players for long stretches of the season because of suspensions for violating a school academic policy implemented by second year principal Bernard Gassaway. The policy required student-athletes to pass their first period class each quarter.

Senior point guard Antione Slaughter, who finished with 13 points, and sixth man Anthony Hemingway, a defensive specialist, missed five games early in the season.  

Most recently, it was Taylor, the team's best player and leading scorer, who was suspended for failing a first period math class. Boys & Girls lost three of the six games Taylor missed and the Kangaroos entered the postseason unsure if Taylor, who will attend Rutgers University on a full scholarship next fall, would be cleared to play out his senior season.

It was only Wednesday morning, after he aced an exam for his first period class, that Gassaway announced Taylor could play.  

Gassaway said he was satisfied with Taylor's turnaround in the first period class, but defended the school's policy and criticized that of the PSAL's policy, which doesn't require its student-athletes to do well enough to graduate.

"You can compete in athletics for four years in New York City and be eligible, but yet not meet graduation requirements," Gassaway said. "That's the big dance. The Garden is one dance but the bigger dance is on June 28."

For now at least, the team’s eye remains on the prize that awaits them Sunday in midtown.