RKA stuns DeWitt Clinton in pivotal game

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When Clinton and the Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy (RKA) took the floor last Friday night in a key Public School Athletic League (PSAL) divisional battle, there was plenty on the line for both teams.

For Clinton, a victory over RKA coupled with a win over Evander in their final regular season game would hand the Governors the Bronx ‘A’ West Division title and a prime spot in both the Bronx Borough Championships and the citywide PSAL playoffs later this month.

For RKA, a team that is coming off a two-win season and has not tasted postseason basketball in several years, two wins in its last three games would send the Tigers into the PSAL playoffs, a feat many thought not possible coming into the year.

And there were two other things to consider: when the two teams met earlier this season, it was Clinton that waltzed to a 16-point win on its home court and RKA had not defeated the Governors since early in Obama’s first term.

David vs. Goliath? Maybe not, but pretty close.

“I’ve been playing varsity since my freshman year and since then we had never beaten Clinton and I had that in the back of my mind since early in the week,” RKA’s Steven Calvo said. “So I let all the guys know, ‘Hey, this is something that hasn’t been done in a while so if we could get this win, it would be big.’”

So RKA went out and promptly took the lead at 14-12 on a layup by William Feldman with 5:27 to play in the first quarter. The Tigers never relinquished the lead as RKA stunned Clinton, 56-42, last Friday at RKA. It just may have been the program’s most important victory in years.

“We won two games last year and I was thinking about not coming back this year, but I told my wife I didn’t want to go out with two wins,” RKA coach Jason Zulauf said. “I have two young kids, so she wants me home. But I knew I had a core of six players and we were going to add some pieces so I really thought we could do it this year.”

Sean Brennan, Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy, Public School Athletic League, DeWitt Clinton High School, basketball
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