The Townsend Harris High School Boys Varsity Basketball Team is currently tied with the Academy of American Studies for second place in the Queens Division AA Division. After two huge wins against Maspeth High School and Academy of American studies, the boys are pushing for the first place position.
On December 15, the boys played Maspeth High School, the current first place team, in a competitive home game that came down to the final seconds. The game went back and forth with THHS winning with a score of 51-48. In the final 60 seconds of the game, the boys were down by one point until senior Andrew Chen came up with a huge steal to put the Hawks back in front by one. The team was led by Junior Sebastian Morales with 23 points and Junior Andrew Leonard with 21 points. The Hawks defeated Maspeth to deliver them their first league loss since 2021.
Senior Andrew Chen said, “It feels really good to finally beat them, considering that last year we lost to Maspeth twice in competitive fashion and that we had our season ended by them my sophomore year.”
“We are going to try to keep up with this winning mentality to try and win the division. We would have to beat scholars at home and Maspeth away to secure the division,” he added.
The following week on December 22, the boys played Academy of American Studies in an away game that ended in overtime. The Boys defeated the Eagles with a score of 61-58. The boys were led by Andrew Leonard with 26 points, Sebastian Morales with 15 points, and Senior Iyad El with nine points.
Junior Andrew Leonard said “ I think the American Studies and Maspeth game went great for a young and hungry team. We went into both of them expecting a rough fight and we came out on top with great team basketball both offensively and defensively.” He also said the team “had timely baskets and stops when we needed them while keeping a positive attitude to pull out a win”
Similarly, Junior Sebastian Morales agrees that one of the biggest goals is for the team to win the division and have a strong run in the playoffs. He added, “The second half of the season is our chance to prove ourselves, especially after losing our two first games of the season.”
The Classic spoke to Coach Denunzio who said, “I think the team is progressing at each practice and games. I am very proud of them and the team is becoming a very close group.”
He mentioned that despite the ups and downs the team has had, they have been playing consistent basketball. He added that with a very young team, “they are developing experience as well as keeping a positive note and winning games.”
The boys have five league games left in the season including big games against Scholars Academy and Maspeth. The team looks towards those games with hopes to enter the playoffs ranked first place in their division.
