The Newburgh Free Academy boys’ basketball team hadn’t played since before Christmas, and had only played three games, winning two of them.

The Goldbacks played three games last week, winning all three, and finishing with a 59-37 win over the Middletown Middies on Saturday afternoon at NFA Main.

“It was very tough, just practicing,” said Andre Crosby, who scored 13 points for the Goldbacks. “We just made sure we stayed in the gym, stay in condition, and being prepared for every game that comes across us.”

Every opponent knows the damage Jah’likai King and Deondre Johnson can do and did. King scored a game-high 21 points in very quiet fashion, while Johnson added 11 of his own. However, the first quarter belonged to Crosby, who scored 10 of Newburgh’s 18 first-quarter points as they built a 14-point lead.

“I just took whatever the defense gave and kept playing my game and do what I do best,” Crosby said.
The Goldbacks seemed ready to cruise after posting another 18 points in the second quarter and taking a 36-15 lead, but the offense slowed down in the second half, and the Goldbacks only managed 23 points.

However, the defense kept Middletown, who was playing down two starters, Ziyade Ndancky and Lynai Dunwoody, from closing the gap.

“We can shoot ourselves in the foot once in a while,” Newburgh coach Frank Dinnocenzio said. “We’ve got to change things up a little bit. I’ve got to look at the film. It might not be as bad as I thought.”

Overall, the Goldbacks played three games in four days last week, starting with an 80-46 win over the Kingston Tigers on Wednesday. King scored 25 points, and Johnson had a double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds.

Before taking on the Tigers, their previous game was on Dec. 21, an 86-37 win over the Valley Central Vikings. They had a game postponed over the Holiday Recess and Saturday’s game against Middletown was previously postponed due to a snowstorm on Jan. 7.

“It was terrible,” Dinnocenzio said. “It was very hard to keep them engaged, but they did a good job. They like to play basketball, so we weren’t always working on everything, but we were working on our sets and everything like that. They like basketball, so that makes it easy.”

Their second game of the week was a 65-33 win over the Warwick Wildcats. King scored 28 points and Johnson had 14. Crosby added 12.

“That feels great,” Crosby said. “It keeps us motivated just keeps us motivated for the next game.”
The Goldbacks’ schedule looks a lot busier as they are scheduled to visit Pine Bush on Wednesday and host Warwick on Friday as the schedule turns toward that final stretch run.

“Now we can work on some stuff because a lot of the times when you’re not playing, you can’t work on stuff and don’t know what you’re lacking,” Dinnocenzio said. “You don’t know what you need. So, we need to work on stuff.”