The M.A.T. Dragons basketball teams continued their strong winter season this week, defeating the Salk School of Science in a Monday night double-header. The girls team beat Salk 40 to 19, with several players turning in outstanding performances. M.A.T. jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, pressing Salk full court the entire game. Shakiira Harewood led all scorers with 12 points and had 6 rebounds in the win. Patty Rosa played strong at point, Destini Torres was tough on defense and hustled at both ends of the court. Alinda Nicaj had 4 points and hit some nice outside shots. Ashley De La Cruz had 2 points, Jubilee Domonech had 4 points and 5 rebounds at center, and both Elizabeth Yee and Ruby Harrison Clay hit three-pointers in the game. On defense, Shai Haynes played great and Ellen Mullan Jayes had a steal.
“We are starting to gel as a team and find success from encouraging each other,” said coach John DeMatteo.
On the boys side, the competition was a little tougher. After battling back and forth for most of the game, the Dragons pulled ahead of Salk with 7 minutes to go in the game and never looked back. M.A.T. took advantage of hot three-point shooting and strong defense. Led by the one-two combo of Emmanuelle Mendoza and Jose Fernandez, M.A.T. was an outside threat all night.
“The boys got hot with their threes and when Salk continued to play man to man, we took the ball inside. Joshua Lawrence did a great job of penetrating to the basket when they denied the outside shot and he’s really coming together as a point guard. Roderick Silva stepped up and took Najee’s place as center and he played one tough ball game. I think the season will round out nicely,” DeMatteo said.
Michael Herman scored 4 points, Anothony Otero had one block and 3 rebounds, Brandon Burgos had 3 steals and Bruce French had 2 steals in the winning effort. The boys’ season continues until the winter break, finishing with the student/faculty basketball game on Feb. 16.
