Mickens’ shot gives PDS boys a thrilling start
By: Bob Nuse
As dramatic as his first win was as Princeton Day School boys’ basketball coach, one can only wonder what the rest of the season has in store for Kyle Zosulis.
"I played a long time and I’ve been coaching for 15 years and I’ve only been involved in one buzzer-beater when the shot went in at the buzzer to win the game, this was it," said Zosulis, whose team opened the season with a 45-42 overtime win over Pennington on Thursday. "There have been games when someone scored with a few seconds left, but never at the buzzer like that to win the game."
It looked like the Panthers would be heading to a second overtime against Pennington, but that was before Jordan Mickens banked in a shot from 30 feet out as time expired in the first extra session.
With the win, PDS took a 1-0 record into Monday’s scheduled game at George School.
"If you would have told me Drew (Godwin, the Panthers’ leading returning scorer) was going to be out and we weren’t going to have Zach Schectel, who was out with the flu, and that Andrew Davidson was only going to score two points and we were going to win, I would have said you were crazy," Zosulis said. "But we had a bunch of young kids that really stepped up.
"Jordan Mickens is in the mode of following in Drew’s footsteps. He took a lot of the weight on his shoulders. We had three guys starting who had never played a varsity game before. But they have applied themselves to sticking to the system and they didn’t get frustrated."
Mickens finished with a team-high 20 points, none bigger than the final three of the game. And even though Mickens had the big shot at the end, this was a win that was earned by everyone.
"Jordan hit some big shots," said Zosulis, whose team will host Ranney on Thursday at 4:15 p.m. "But the biggest thing might have been Andrew Dowdy. He probably made four of five from the field in the fourth quarter. He hit four big shots. He probably has ice water in his veins. He never looks scared and his shot always looks the same. He had eight big points starting his first varsity game. Between him and Armando Davis, they really stepped up.
"C.J. Martino was also making his first start and he had nine boards for us. So it was really a group effort for us. Our kids just had that mentality of refuse to lose. That’s all you can ask of them. There was never a point in the game where I didn’t think we were going to win. The kids are young and they don’t know any better. Armando said after the game it was the craziest game he has ever been in."
It was also a crazy game for Zosulis, who has been around a lot longer but hasn’t seen many stranger.
"It was a crazy way to open my coaching career with PDS, to get a 30-footer that went in," the first-year coach said. "I didn’t think he would get the shot off. I thought all the kids just played real well.
"The other thing was that in the fourth quarter we had Jordan and Andrew both with four fouls. We used our bench and those guys really came through for us."
Davis finished with nine points, while Dowdy had his eight. Martino added five points to go along with his nine rebounds.
"It was a good team win," Zosulis said. "We were missing key players, we had foul trouble, but everybody stepped up and did their part. We stayed within the system and we were able to open with a win. It’s a nice way to start."

