Tavon Sledge scores 46 to break Long Island basketball record

When it comes to stealing the show from the PSAL championship game at Madison Square Garden, which is basketball's version of Broadway, mere understudies need not apply.

Enter Tavon Sledge, a senior from Half Hollow Hills West (Dix Hills) who is certainly a marquee name in New York high school basketball. While Boys & Girls and Abraham Lincoln were playing a nail-biter at MSG, the 5-foot-8 Iowa State recruit electrified the house at Stony Brook University on Sunday.

Sledge scored 13 points in the two overtimes and set a Long Island championship game record with 46 overall during a 79-75 victory over Elmont to reach the New York State Public High School Athletic Association semifinals in Class AA.

Chris Kaimis made two free throws with 30.7 seconds left in the second overtime to give Half Hollow Hills West the lead for good, and Sledge followed with a steal and two more free throws. Sledge scored 13 of the team's 17 points after the end of regulation, including a 3-pointer late in the first OT to knot the score again.

"I'm never afraid to take the big shots, hit or miss," Sledge told Newsday. "Before the second overtime, I told coach, 'I'm gonna win this game for you.'"

Half Hollow Hills West, which lost the 2010 state final to Albany CBA, is the first Long Island team to make back-to-back trips to Glens Falls in Class AA.

MORE BASKETBALL: BOYS & GIRLS, CHRIST THE KING WIN
In the PSAL final at Madison Square Garden, guard Antione Slaughter scored 19 points and forward Leroy Fludd tallied 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Boys & Girls (Brooklyn) past Lincoln (Brooklyn) 62-55 and earn the Kangaroos a place in the Federation semifinals.

Boys & Girls was the defending tournament champion, but Lincoln — the PSAL champ 2005-09 — had swept the regular-season series against its Brooklyn rival. This time, the Kangaroos converted 23 Railsplitters turnovers into 28 points and limited leading scorer Shaquille Stokes to 2-for-11 shooting and nine points.

In the CHSAA championship, a football star quarterbacked Christ the King (Middle Village) to its second straight championship.

Terrel Hunt, who signed a letter of intent last month to play football at Syracuse University, had been averaging a modest 5.2 points a game until Sunday against Manhattan Rice.

But he erupted for 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting and also added eight rebounds as the Royals defeated Rice 60-57 for the Class AA intersectional title. The Royals, who raced to a 15-0 lead, are the defending Federation large-school champions.

"Everybody else has a chance to play somewhere else next year, D-II, D-III, it don't matter," Hunt told The New York Post. "I'm going to play football and to have the feeling that I have one more game left in my career and we've got a state championship coming up soon, it feels amazing."

Hunt also played tough defense against Cincinnati recruit Jermaine Sanders (eight points) and made the clinching free throw with 4.4 seconds to play.

"One game left, he's got one game left in his high school career and then he's going to be playing football," Royals coach Joe Arbitello said. "I'll take Terrel Hunt every year. He's just tough."

Emmanuel Andujar had a game-high 28 points and 16 rebounds in a losing cause.

John Schiano, who has written about high school sports in western and central New York for more than 25 years, covers New York for MaxPreps. He may be reached at john.schiano@maxpreps.com.