Goldbacks win second straight Class AA title

By Mike Zummo
Posted 3/9/23

Deondre Johnson has been waiting all season for this dunk.

With about five seconds remaining, Johnson broke free, ran to the hoop unabated and with a windmill motion slammed down an emphatic dunk …

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Goldbacks win second straight Class AA title

Posted

Deondre Johnson has been waiting all season for this dunk.

With about five seconds remaining, Johnson broke free, ran to the hoop unabated and with a windmill motion slammed down an emphatic dunk that sent one message.

The Newburgh Free Academy boys’ basketball team had their largest lead of the day, 10 points, and with 5.6 seconds to go, the message was clear: for the second straight season, the Middletown Middie Bears’ season ended at the hands of the Goldbacks, 52-42, on Thursday night at SUNY Sullivan.

“I’ve been waiting all year for that dunk,” Johnson said. “I didn’t know what to do, if I should throw it off the backboard or windmill. I just didn’t want to miss.”

The win in Thursday’s Section 9 Class AA championship game gave the Goldbacks their second straight title since the tournament came back from a one-year hiatus following the COVID-19 pandemic. The Goldbacks also won the title before the pandemic in 2020.

“It feels great,” said Elnathan Johnson, who led the Goldbacks with a game-high 18 points. “This is something we’ve been thinking about since the beginning of the season. It just feels good to finally accomplish it.”

It didn’t come easy, though.

The teams were tied with 2:53 remaining in the third quarter when Deondre Johnson put the Goldbacks ahead for good with a spin move on the paint. Then, Johnson gave the Goldbacks a 40-36 lead at the third quarter buzzer to send the Goldbacks into the fourth quarter, hanging on.

The Goldbacks finally broke away with 1:36 remaining to go in the game when Elnathan Johnson knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Goldbacks a seven-point lead.

Jaydan Lorenzo, who the Goldbacks learned was returning to Newburgh from Las Vegas around Thanksgiving, scored 17 points.

“It’s amazing,” Lorenzo said. “I knew this was where I want to be. I always worked for it and just did what I had to do.”

It was the perfect ending to the Goldbacks’ Section 9 season, a season that had a rocky start as the Goldbacks lost their first three games of the season, suffered key losses to Valley Central and Monroe-Woodbury, and entered the Section 9 tournament as the No. 2 seed, behind the top-seeded Middies.

“That makes this even better because people doubted us the whole season,” Deondre Johnson said. “To come out victorious, I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Neither could the Goldbacks’ rookie head coach, Jason McAllister, winning keeping his team together for a section championship in his first year at the helm.

“To be in this position is honestly a blessing,” McAllister said. “It’s kind of a dream come true. I don’t even know how to put it into words. As a first year head coach at 28 years old, there’s not a lot of people that have been fortunate to be in this position that I am right now.”

The Goldbacks are looking to take their position and advance further. They were scheduled to face Section 4 champion Elmira on Tuesday night at Johnson City High School.

The winner will face Section 1 champion on Saturday at Yorktown High School.

“(We’ll just) stay together,” Deondre Johnson said. “That’s what it’s been the whole season. If we stay together and play our basketball, then no one can beat us.”