Say this about Lenair (Dinero) Young: if anything, he’s persistent.

The Swagger Like Us coach has been pestering Sachem East (L.I.) star Kristen Doherty, one of the top juniors in the state, to join his team at the Rose Classic since the bi-annual event started more than a month ago.

“He’s been asking me for like six weeks,” Doherty said.

The Boston College-bound, sweet-shooting guard finally had a free weekend and it couldn’t come at a better time for Swagger Like Us. With Team Prince clawing back from a big deficit, Doherty knocked down two clutch 3-pointers to seal a 77-70 win for her new squad Saturday in the Rose Classic semifinals at JHS 113 in Brooklyn. Swagger will meet Exodus NYC, which knocked off the Golden Girls, on Sunday in the final at 2 p.m.

“I’ve been working on that all season,” Young said. “Six weeks I’ve been on her.”

It certainly paid off. Doherty had 19 points and was 3-for-3 from beyond the arc.

“I love her game,” Swagger Like Us guard Alicia Cropper said. “I’ve

never played with a shooter like her before.”

 

Cropper, a junior at Jefferson, led the way with 23 points. Curtis senior Victoria Macaulay, who is headed to Temple, had 12 points and Jefferson’s Takima Lucky added 10 points for Swagger Like Us.

Team Prince was down, 59-45, headed into the fourth quarter, but actually took a one-point lead with just over a minute remaining before Doherty knocked down her second big 3. South Shore sophomore Jasmine Odom had 21 points and South Shore senior Baytania Newman added 12 points.

“Part of our problem is closing out,” Swagger Like Us senior Nicole Marciniak said.

H.D. Woodson (D.C.) import Jeniece Johnson had 17 points for Team Prince. The 6-foot-6, Kentucky-bound mammoth somehow dwarfed Macaulay, who is 6-foot-4. She created all kinds of match-up problems for Swagger down low.

“She kept smiling at me like she was hungry,” Marciniak said. “I was so scared.”

Young all but guaranteed a berth in the final after Swagger’s first game on April 4. He put together an amalgamation of some of the city’s most well-known players: Cropper, Macaulay, Lucky, Marciniak, Jefferson’s Danielle Pearson, Molloy’s Marielle Duryea and Bergtraum’s Shanee Williams. Williams has since dropped off the team and Doherty and Harlem native Afreyea Tolbert, out of St. Mary’s (N.J.), joined up.

“It was the long road,” Young said. “But it feels good, because I had everybody against me.”

Young left the Exodus AAU organization this spring to coach for the Mike Flynn-run Philly Belles in Pennsylvania. On Sunday, he’ll match up with Exodus NYC, coached by program head Apache Paschall.

“When you leave something and go back,” Young said, “you always want to be better than when you left.”

mraimondi@fiveborosports.com