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Watch Out CHSAA Here Comes the PSAL : BY KEITH MASON 2/5

    If you look at the PSAL there is one thing that is very obvious, scoring by the top players is way up from past years. The best example of this is Quincy Douby. You start out with the 3 games where he outscored the opposite teams by himself. Those are the 63, 50 and 64 point games. More impressive then the number of points he scored in those games is the number of 3's he hit in the two 60 point games; 34, and it's not like the 9 he hit in the 50 point game is a little bit. He is putting up an unbelievable 35 points a game this year in league play, which is by far the most in the PSAL. Although he has the most 50 point games Douby is definitely not the only one to put in a 50 point game. Sophomore Sebastian Telfair recently went for 52 the same day Quincy went off for 64. He has already passed the 1,000 point mark for his career that hasn't even been 2 years. He has a real shot of breaking the state scoring record of 2,612 set by Kenny Anderson. As only a Sophomore he is averaging nearly 30 points a game, imagine what he'll do his senior year. The biggest surprise of a player scoring 50 is another underclassmen Ed Berrios of Roosevelt. A few weeks back he went for 52. The last couple of years he played in the shadow of Sammy Mejia but now that it is his team he is making a name for himself, be averaging about 27 points a game. Since he is only a junior he has another to put up big numbers and earn respect in the city. The most impressive 50+ game came from Gary Ervin, as he put up 56 points while dishing out 12 assists, and grabbed 14 boards that game, but it all came in a losing effort. Ervin is averaging about 28 a game this season and is second in the PSAL in assists per game with over 9 a contest. Ervin has consistently put up 30-35 in tough games and in the easier games he doesn't look to shoot a lot. What makes his scoring more impressive is he is playing in the toughest and deepest division in the PSAL. The last player to score 50 in a game this year, probably had the most important 50 point game, George Jefferson. In his 57 point 27 rebound game, Jefferson scored 12 points in overtime to lift his team pass Grand St. Campus and kept his teams playoff hopes alive. For his first 3 years he played in the B division, so people took his numbers for granted but now he is putting up 30 points and 19 rebounds a game in the A division which has made people take notice, and earned himself a spot on the all-city team. So what does the outburst in scoring mean? Is the defense in the PSAL that bad? Are the best players just that much better then next level of payers in the PSAL? The second question is closer to the truth so in return the great players make the defense look bad. For the first time in a few years the best players in the PSAL are just as good if not better then the best players in the CHSAA. If you look back to 2000 it would have been real easy to say of the top 10 players in the city not one of them played in the PSAL. This year is different, with 3 of the top 10 players in the PSAL being in the top 10, and 5 in the CHSAA. So it is not hard to see that the PSAL is closing the gap in terms of getting the stars. So it may not be long until we see a PSAL team crowned state champs for the first time since Stephon Marbury led Lincoln to the title back in 95'.