Crossover win All-City League title with dramatic comeback

LYNN?It looked like the All-City League finals at Marian Gardens on Friday was set to turn into a second half runaway for regular season champion He Got Game.Leading by 13 midway through the second half, the unbeaten top seeds were in complete control. But led by the Division 1 back court of Ryan Woumn and Tony Gallo, No. 2 seed Crossover put up a comeback for the ages.Click here for more photosDown by 10 with two minutes left, Crossover charged back to literally steal the All-City championship when Tony Lesure buried a three off a turnover with one second left for an 81-80 victory.Unlike last Friday’s semifinals, where both teams went over the century mark on offense, the large crowd that turned out witnessed a fast-paced affair that saw both squads turn up the intensity on the defensive end.Neither team could take more than a five point lead in the first half as He Got Game mentor Corey Bingham and Pope John senior-to-be Malcolm Brown-Simpson went back and forth in what seemed to be a mano-a-mano duel.Bingham had 13 first half points while Brown-Simpson had 12. But He Got Game used a 14-5 run late in the half to turn a 24-21 deficit into a 37-35 halftime lead.The ferociousness on the defensive glass continued at the start of the second half as English big man Corey McMillen and Classical’s Uche Nwokeji had several big blocks in the lane.Brown-Simpson, who would be named League MVP for his efforts, had nine of Crossover’s first 16 second half points to help offset the efforts of Quincy Imadiyi and Bingham to pull their team away.With Crossover leading 51-48 with nine minutes left, Imadiyi, Nwokeji and Bingham went to work to send He Got Game on a 12-1 run that made it 63-53. The delta eventually grew to 72-59 on a Freddy Hogan trifecta that seemingly put Crossover down for the count.Brown and Tony Gallo had other ideas though and they helped set the stage for a wild finish.Brown started the comeback with a layup, but Bingham and Imadiyi helped stem the tide momentarily. An eerily silent Woumn knifed to the hoop for a layup and Gallo added a three moments later to cut the lead to 78-70.A LeSure three cut the lead to 80-73 with 90 seconds remaining and Woumn added a layup off a steal moments later to make things interesting in a hurry.McMillen was fouled on a putback and hit one-of-two shots to get Crossover within four with 33 ticks left. Woumn would score again off a He Got Game miss with 10 seconds left as it looked like the gallant comeback would run out of time.But an errant inbounds pass gave Crossover a chance and Lesure didn’t miss, burying his shot from the top of the key for the game-winner.