Even with the game appearing to slip away, Malik Nichols only saw one possible ending and he wasn’t going to be satisfied with anything else.
“I had to,” he said. “The chip is on the line. We had to win.”
Win his team did.
The former Boys & Girls wing scored 37 points and led the final Positive Direction comeback to complete and electric performance and a 70-66 win over Bedford Y in the boys high school championship at the West 4th Classic on Saturday afternoon.
Nichols, the game's MVP, scored eight of his team’s final 10 points including a layup in traffic with 27 seconds left to put them up 68-66. He corralled a missed 3-pointer by Marlon Cort on the possession and was fouled. Chris Best did bail him out in the final seconds by rebounding his second free throw miss to secure the win.
Joseph Staszewski
Positive Direction celebrates its West 4th boys high school division title Sunday.
“It was huge,” Nichols said of Best’s board. “That’s how you win games.”
What made it sweeter for Nichols was doing it against two of his former Kangaroos teammates in Mike Taylor and Antonie Slaughter along with other Brooklyn stars. He and Taylor jawed early with Nichols saying he couldn’t guard him. He didn’t score in the second quarter as he was being protected on the bench with two fouls. N
ichols grinned widely when beating Taylor, who had 12 points, was mentioned. Cardozo rising senior Ta’Jay Henry added 11 points and Keith Gardner had six for Positive Direction. St. John’s-bound forward Maurice Harkless and Kelvin Amayo each had 18 points for Bedford.
“He’s a fighter,” Henry said of Nichols. “He said he wanted the chip. He is playing against his own boys.”
Added Harkless: “I think that’s the best I’ve seen him play.”
There were times when it didn’t look like it was going to happen. The Queens-based Positive Direction trailed 38-37 with 5:57 left in the third, but Nichols responded with a layup, a 3-pointer and feed to Gardner for an easy score.
Then things went from bad to worse. Harkless led a 10-0 Bedford run capped by a two-handed putback slam to extend its lead to 60-48 with 5:30 left to play in the game. There wasn’t any panic from Positive Direction.
“One more push,” PD coach Tyron Wilkerson said. “That’s how it went. They went up seven or eight. We went up three or four, they went back up 12. That’s what we told them in the last timeout. This is it, buckle down.”
His team exploded for a 15-2 spurt led by Nichols, who will attend a prep school next season, and Henry, nicked “The Garbage Man” by tournament director Arizona because of his blue collar effort on the boards. His putback with 2:15 left in the game gave Positive Direction, which had a lackluster July, a 63-62 lead.
With the program’s girls team winning also winning the West 4th crown, it made Positive Direction the first dual winners.
“This is a big win,” Henry said. “It’s our first championship of the summer in a big game.”
jstaszewski@nypost.com
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