As a youngster growing up in Jersey City, Stephon Whyatt used to watch and marvel at the talents of his uncle, Roshown McLeod, the former St. Anthony and Duke standout who later went on to play in the NBA and currently is an assistant coach at the University of Indiana.
But Whyatt, currently a junior at St. Peter’s Prep, never imagined that he would someday be making big shots in big games like his famous uncle. After all, Whyatt has spent his time at St. Peter’s Prep as a reserve guard, a role player, playing second fiddle to other Marauder guards like sharpshooter supreme Myles Davis, flashy point guard Kevin Walker and pinpoint perimeter performer J.J. Hladik.
With his speed and quickness, Whyatt fits the role of a defensive stopper more than a pure scorer.
And last Thursday, at the NJSIAA Non-Public A North sectional championship game against Seton Hall Prep at the Rutgers Athletic Center, that’s exactly the responsibility that Whyatt had. He entered the game in the fourth quarter, with his team trailing, needing to provide defense against the Pirates’ premier scorer Sterling Gibbs.
“I just needed to do whatever I could do to help the team,” Whyatt said. “I knew I had to come off the bench and do my job.”
As it turned out, Whyatt was the offensive hero as well.
Left unattended because there wasn’t any proof of his offensive prowess, Whyatt nailed two clutch 3-point field goals that first gave the Marauders the lead. He then canned another soon after that increased the advantage, providing the impetus the Marauders needed in the 64-54 win over Seton Hall Prep.
With the Marauders trailing in the fourth quarter and with the chance of giving St. Peter’s its first state sectional title since 1984 seemingly slipping away, Whyatt calmly went to work. The first shot from long range bottomed the net with 3:50 remaining, giving the Marauders a 52-50 lead. Less than 30 seconds later, Whyatt swished another, pushing the lead to 55-50, giving the Marauders a 55-50 lead that they simply were not going to relinquish this time.
Whyatt was left all alone by the Pirates’ defense, because they didn’t think he could make the shots. The Pirates were too busy clamping down on the high-scoring Davis, who only had seven points for the night.
“I was kind of surprised that they could leave me that wide open,” Whyatt said. “But considering it was crunch time, I had to take the shots.”
Even veteran Seton Hall Prep head coach Bob Farrell never dreamed that Whyatt would be the one to beat his team.
“I watched them [the Marauders] on film several times and I never saw that from the kid,” Farrell said. “When it’s someone you don’t expect that steps up and bangs down a couple of threes, well, you tip your hat to him. Those shots were really big. I understand that Hladik hits threes, but Whyatt? I didn’t see it happening. It wasn’t in our game plan.”
“They gambled and left Stephon open and fortunately for us, he made the shots,” St. Peter’s Prep head coach Mike Kelly said. “Stephon is very capable of doing that. We needed someone to come through and hit those shots and fortunately, it was him.”
It came at a time when the Marauders were starting to doubt themselves.
“We were starting to put our heads down, thinking it wasn’t going to happen,” said senior forward Ronald Roberts, who had a team-high 16 points. “But we had to keep going and working hard. We made sure that we had the passion needed to win.”
The Marauders also needed a little bit of revisionist history. Back in January, the Marauders had a chance to topple St. Anthony in the Dan Finn Classic, but blew a nine-point lead with two minutes remaining, simply because they couldn’t control the ball and let the clock run out.
This time, the Marauders were masterful with the lead, playing keep-away with the basketball and forcing the Pirates to foul. In the fourth quarter, a period where the Marauders outscored the Pirates, 24-10, they made 11 of 13 free throws.
“I think we all learned a lesson from the St. Anthony game,” Whyatt said. “We had to bring the ball out, hold the ball and protect the lead.”
Hladik had 14 points and Walker added 12 points and five assists for the Marauders, who enacted revenge on the Pirates for sending the Marauders packing from the state playoffs at home a year ago.
“I think I watched that tape 10,000 times,” Kelly said. “I was sick and tired of being reminded about the Seton Hall game last year and I think the kids were sick and tired of me reminding them about it. We got the lead and held the lead, not like the St. Anthony game. We went over that about 1,000 times in practice. I better have been a little smarter this time. We were better trained.”
So the Marauders had their state sectional title. They fell short in the goal of winning the school’s first overall state crown since 1959, losing to Camden Catholic at the Ritacco Center in Toms River on Sunday, a day after the game was postponed due to a power failure. The Marauders schlepped down the shore on Saturday, got to the site, then had to turn around and do it again a day later.
“We talked to the guys about the history of the program, about the 1959 team,” Kelly said. “
We wanted to carve our own little niche of history.”
That will have to wait. For now, the Marauders have to be content with the sectional crown – and that memorable night in Piscataway when, for the first time ever, two Hudson County basketball teams won state crowns at the same venue on the same night. In that respect, it was definitely a historic evening. – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.