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The players' names have changed over six years, but the pictureof New York's open men's basketball team wearing gold medals hasn't changed at the Empire State Games. But New York did not have an easy time disposing of the Western team yesterday, winning 97-94 after being up by as much as 10 points in the second half.
"We knew we were in for a tough night," said Mark Jackson of St. John's, who had 15 points and 9 assists for New York. "They're a good team. We knew they would make a surge."
New York built its lead behind on the scoring of Jackson and University of Missouri center Derrick Chievous, who led New York with 20 points and four steals.
Western's rally was engineered by Buffalo native Curtis Aiken, a guard from the University of Pittsburgh who led all scorers with 31 points. Aiken also scored 12 of Western's last 14 points.
"Our main concern was Curtis taking over and dominating the end of the game," said New York coach Paul Brown, who countered by keeping fresh defense on Aikens. "You don't stop great players, you just try to slow them down. I think he got a little tired by the end of the game."
Jackson said the medal was significant to him because he considered the Games as a competition built on pride. Usually unemotional on the court, Jackson punched the air with his fist after Eric Brown's dunk gave New York an insurmountable 97-91 lead with 30 seconds left.
"There's a lot of pride involved," said Jackson,...