Forest Hills High School Boys Basketball Primed For Big Year

The Forest Hills boys basketball team went to the Bronx Tuesday for a game. Actually, it was a modified exhibition game, where teams play to win individual, eight-minute quarters. Their destination was the Gaucho gym. 

As New York City basketball mythology goes, it's a place of high order. Tucked into a nondescript, industrial neighborhood off of the Major Deegan Expressway, it's a part of hoops history. Pro's have played here — scores of them — and it's been the site of epic Friday night Catholic League basketball battles and AAU shootouts. Yankee Stadium looms in the distance. This is where Rice High School of Manhattan plays its home games.

Forest Hills slipped past the steaming, bullheaded mascot in the building's lobby and played Rice — one of the New York City Catholic League's strongmen — tough. Real tough. The next day, Forest Hills coach Ben Chobhaphand got a phone call from a reporter and was posed a question that he did not know the answer to, but would hear many times this season.

"What are you going to do without Mo?"

Maurice Harkless is gone. He has taken his lithe, 6-foot-6 frame and All-American credentials to the South Kent School, a prep school basketball powerhouse in Connecticut, for his senior year. He was a two-year phenom for Chobhaphand and Forest Hills, a player who catapulted the team into the clouds, into the same breath as the Lincolns and the Boys and Girls, the city's elites. But Mo's time has passed.

"You can't replace a player like Maurice," said Chobhaphand of the St. John's-bound player. "But this March, he would have graduated anyway. We were good before Maurice and we'll be good after him."

Forest Hills' 2009-2010 season ended in February with a crushing, come-from-behind loss to Curtis of Staten Island in the second round of the PSAL playoffs. Last Tuesday's game in the Bronx marked a new start. On Wednesday Forest Hills played Archbishop Molloy, the venerable Catholic League program, in a scrimmage. On Sunday they play Boys and Girls at Long Island University in Brooklyn. Defending Public League City Champs. Game No. 1.

"We've got a chip on our shoulder," said Forest Hills junior Rudy Collins. "We want to prove everybody wrong."

If Forest Hills is going to thwart the notion that they're sliding downward, they're going to do it with defense.

"I think this is one of the best defensive teams we've had at Forest Hills in a long time," said Chobhaphand. "We have a lot of lanky guys."

Collins is one of four starters returning from a team that went 17-11 (11-3 in Queens AA), At 6'5", he has a "college-ready" body, according to his coach, and can defend four different positions, from point guard to power forward. 

"Our halfcourt defense is like Duke," said Collins. "We talk (to each other), and other teams don't know what to do."

Senior captain Denzel Dulin, 6'4", does a lot of things well. He is a "Division I athlete" according to Chobhaphand, and brings great pedigree. His older brother, Forest Hills assistant coach Anthony Dulin, played Division I basketball at Delaware State. Another brother, Tyrone, played at Bayside High School and at Division II Post University in Connecticut.

"I tell everyone that he's the tallest and the most talented of the brothers," said Chobhaphand.

Jose Torres is a 6'6" senior who will provide muscle inside. Senior point guard Shawn Branch, at 6'2", was a part-time starter and will be part of the collective effort to replace Harkless's rebounding and scoring for the 2009-2010 team. Junior Arif Mehmetaj is a wild card. He's a "super-lanky" athlete at 6'6" and will be part of the collective effort to replace Harkless's offense.

Senior guard Nick Padgett, who scored 16 points in the fourth quarter of the team's 68-61 loss to Cardozo in the Queens AA championship last season, can heat up in a hurry.

"He's definitely our 'Microwave'," said Chobhaphand, repeating the nickname of former Detroit Pistons player Vinnie Johnson. "He's instant offense."

Preseason games against Rice and Molloy suggest that the coach, consistent with previous years, is looking to test his team strenuously with its non-league schedule. In addition to facing PSAL schools Boys and Girls, Wings Academy, and South Shore, the Rangers travel to Coral Springs, Fla., in mid-December for the 21st Annual Hawk Kruel Classic, a 32-team tournament with a loaded field composed of in-state teams and others from around the country.

"We wanted to make our non-league schedule as tough as possible," said Chobhaphand. "We want to be ready for the conference schedule and ready for the (city) playoffs."

Harkless went a long way toward establishing Forest Hills as a Queens powerhouse. Now Chobhaphand continues on his mission to transform the program into a New York City power.

"I think we're a Queens powerhouse, definitely," said Chobhaphand. "I want to make us into a New York City powerhouse, year in, year out."