Kennedy Loses Championship Final at the Garden

-Photo slideshow by Adi Talwar

The Kennedy Knights boys hoop squad, playing for the Bronx and the memory of fallen teammate Andre "Pops" Davidson who died last summer during a pickup game, could only hold off the Lincoln juggernaut and history for so long.

After closing to within two points of the Railsplitters toward the end of the first half, Kennedy could not contain superstar senior Lance Stephenson's team in the second half as Lincoln cruised to a 78-56 victory in the boys city championship final at Madison Square Garden on Saturday afternoon. It was Stephenson and Lincoln's fourth title in as many years.

A tough, but not surprising loss for Kennedy, which had only lost one game all season and had won 15 in a row going into the championship. But Lincoln is incredibly big and athletic and Stephenson is probably the best player in the city, if not the entire state. It would have been a huge upset, one of the biggest in city history, if the Knights had won on Saturday.

Stephenson was in foul trouble in the second quarter, which allowed the Knights to come back, but they didn't do enough with Lincoln's superstar out of the lineup. "We should have capitalized when Lance went out," Kennedy coach Johnny Mathis said, according to the Times.

Read the Five Boro Sports game story here. Read the Daily News story here.

Lincoln moves on to the state federation tournament where they will play Rice High School (Harlem) in a semifinal match Saturday.