Summit Academy’s girls basketball team won its first citywide championship last month as it pulled away in the 4th quarter to win the 1A girls basketball playoffs over Manhattan’s School of the Future, 53-45.
The game at Long Island University’s Steinberg Wellness Center was packed with fans from both teams. In the semifinals at Queensborough Community College, Summit beat No. 4 seed Inwood Academy by 39 points to advance to the 1A championship game one week later against the No. 2 seed.
Summit dominated during the regular season finishing with a 14-0 league record. School of the Future also had a 14-0 record.
After the game ended, the eight Summit players got championship t-shirts and went up one by one to receive their medals at center court. They became the first charter high school to win a Public School Athletic League (PSAL) city championship in girls basketball.
The MVP of the championship game went to Chloe Freeman who had 22 points. Their coach, Dytanya Mixson, then got the championship trophy at center court and the team took a picture with the PSAL 1A championship banner.
Mixson said winning the championship ranks very high in his life when he reflected after the game.
“Second to having my children, it was the best feeling in the world,” Mixson said. “I have been working for that for the last 14 years.”
He thought it was a great feeling playing in front of more than 1,000 people at LIU with a big Summit supporter section. There were many more fans than at any of Summit’s other games.
“This is what you live for,” Mixson said. “You want to play in front of all your family and friends. And you want to be the villain for the people that are rooting against you. It was just a great feeling.”
Mixson shared information about this championship game to the Summit school community.
Also, since he has been coaching for 30 years, he told the players he has previously coached about this game at LIU hoping they could come support.
“I was fortunate that some of my former players came from out of state to see this game,” Mixson said. “I have been coaching since 1988 and there were players that I had not seen in over 10 years at that game. It was really great.”
Amerie Santana is a sophomore on the team who lives in Red Hook.
She had nine points, five rebounds and five assists in the championship game.
She was elated after the game when she won her first championship.
“I was really excited,” Santana said. “I was telling everybody about the game. It felt good to be a champion. We worked so hard to come here.”
Santana has enjoyed bringing a championship back to Red Hook and getting so much support.
“It feels great,” Santana said. “After the game, when I was going home, a lot of people were telling me congratulations. A lot of strangers walked up to me telling me I played good and telling me congratulations.”
It made her a little nervous playing in front of more than 1,000 fans at a college court but she thought it was exciting seeing so many people in yellow shirts supporting Summit.
Their coach thought the team had a good chance to win the A division championship when the season began.
“I felt that we were a favorite,” Mixson said. “I told my team if we are as good as we think we are then we need to dominate the division from beginning to end and I think we did that.”
The team brought back everybody except for one senior from last season and added a couple of players that improved the team.
The team was the unanimous No. 1 seed in the 1A playoffs (schools with less than 250 students) and ended the year with a 23-4 record.
They were also the number seven seed in the borough of Brooklyn playoffs and won a game in that bracket. This means they were the seventh best team in the borough among schools of all sizes, which their coach thought was a big thing.
The coach thought the biggest win in the regular season was in Staten Island against Susan Wagner on January 7. They are a 4A team, which means the school has more than 1,000 students.
He thought the team came together as a unit. They won the back and forth game by five points.
“That was a pivotal win in our season that let me know we were for real,” Mixson said.
Santana’s favorite win of the regular season was also against Susan Wagner because the team got blown out last season. The team was told it would be a big upset and then they pulled off the win.
There was also a game earlier in the season against private school Poly Prep. Summit pulled away in the fourth quarter and won like how they did against Susan Wagner and against School of the Future.
Their coach said the team is a very close knit group, which helped them throughout the season. They stayed united and stayed together.
It was a real team effort in the championship game with many players stepping up and playing key roles during the game on offense and defense.
Santana was able to achieve two goals this season. Her first was to score 1,000 points (in high school), which she did in the semifinal against Inwood Academy, and her second was to win the championship.
“I have been saying since the beginning of the school year that we were going to take it home,” Santana said. “I’m ready for next season already.”
She was happy the team won the championship for the two seniors.
Summit took an 8-5 lead on a steal and then a fast break layup and then took a 10-7 lead after another steal and a fast break layup. School of the Future ended the first quarter with a 15-13 lead.
The Summit Eagles scored first in the second quarter as they made a 3-pointer to take a 16-15 lead and then School of the Future scored to take a one-point lead.
Freeman made a layup with two minutes left in the half to give Summit a 20-17 lead. School of the Future was fouled just before the second quarter ended and made two free throws to tie the score at 23 at halftime.
Summit took 33-32 lead on layup by Alana Rivers. Summit took a 35-34 lead on a layup by Freeman at the end of the 3rd quarter right after a free throw by School of the Future.
The championship game between a Brooklyn school and a Manhattan school was tightly contested the first three quarters.
After a few minutes went by in the 4th quarter, Summit made a corner 3-pointer to tie the game at 38.
School of the Future made a layup to take a 42-40 lead and then Summit outscored School of the Future 13-3 the rest of the way.
A technical foul was called and then Rivers made two free throws to give Summit a 45-42 lead. Freeman made a layup late in the quarter to give Summit a 48-42 lead.
School of the Future made a three for the last basket of the game and the A division championship ended with Summit winning by eight points.
“We stayed together in the 4th quarter and did what we had to do to complete the victory,” Mixson said. “We proved that we could win on the big stage.”
