Leading off today: Abraham Lincoln guard Lance Stephenson became the state's all-time leading scorer in boys basketball last night during an 81-61 rout of a depleted Thomas Jefferson squad at LIU that gave the Railsplitters their fifth straight Brooklyn borough championship.
Stephenson's first bucket of the night, an uncontested layup off the opening tip, moved him past former Lincoln great Sebastian Telfair (2,785 points) into the No. 1 spot. The 6-foot-5 senior finished with 24 points and stands at 2,808 for his career.
Ryan Creighton of Greenport, who has 2,622 points as his senior season winds down, is third on the list. Former Archbishop Molloy star Kenny Anderson (2,621) and East Hampton's Kenny Wood (2,613) round out the top five.
"That means a lot,” Stephenson told FiveBoroSports.com. "I wasn’t trying to break the record. I just played hard. I felt I earned it."
Stephenson soared up the list this week with outbursts of 50 and 48 points in borough playoff victories against FDR and Transit Tech. He had 11 rebounds vs. Jefferson as Lincoln (17-10) played for the fifth time in six days. Maryland-bound James Padgett had 18 points and 16 rebounds, Darwin "Buddha" Ellis posted 18 points and eight assists and Shaquille Stokes chipped in 14 points and eight assists.
Jefferson played minus injured guards David Coley (knee) and Keith Spellman (back), and it got worse when forward Joel "Air Jamaica" Wright was ejected in the fourth quarter for picking up his second technical foul. Per PSAL rules he will be suspended for the next two games and cannot return until the league semifinals.
"Definitely, I’m disappointed," Jefferson coach Lawrence Pollard said. "Cooler heads have to prevail. Our better players gotta be smart."
More Stephenson: Arguably the most significant unsigned senior in the country, Stephenson has made a change to his list of prospective colleges by dropping Memphis (which has a commitment from Xavier Henry, a slick 6-6 shooting guard from Putnam City, Okla.) and adding Maryland. Others still in the hunt for his services are Kansas -- which he'll visit next weekend -- Southern Cal and St. John's.
Another scoring king: Clarkstown North senior center Matt Willows' short-hander with 3:18 to play during an 8-2 win Saturday vs. North Rockland was his 81st goal of the season, breaking the state mark by Scarsdale's Bryan Gitler in 2003-04. Gregg Zegras of Rye (71 in 1984-85) is the only other player to score as many as 70 in a season.
"It's a great accomplishment, but I wouldn't be able to do it without my teammates and my coaches," he told The Journal News "I scored 81 goals, but hockey is a team sport, and without everyone around me I wouldn't have any."
Willows, who has scored in every game during a 22-1-1 start, had three goals in a 5:59 span of the third period.
