Christ the King stormed out onto its Queens court last night and tried to run St. Raymond’s out of the building. The Royals did, but only for the first half. In the end, they ran out of gas and fell 77-68 to the visiting Ravens.
St. Raymond’s (14-3), which trailed 39-30 at the half, received a wake-up call from head coach Oliver Antigua.
“I’m not going to tell you what I said. But it certainly worked,” Antigua said afterwards.
What it did was light a fire under his team, which came out in the second half and physically dominated the rest of the contest.
In the first half the Ravens pounded the ball down low on virtually every possession, with minimal effect.
Senior Louie McCroskey (15 points) and junior Gavin Grant (13 points) dominated the paint from the second quarter on.
The duo used post moves to back down smaller defenders, resulting in easy lay-ins. When the lane was clogged up, the two slid baseline and found an alternate route to the basket.
Antigua felt Grant’s hustle was the intangible.
“Gavin was great. He really carried us through the first half,” Antigua said. “He was the only player I wasn’t upset with at halftime.”
“I just tried to help out. I got some good looks and was able to get the ball into the paint,” Grant said.
Ricky Torres (15 points) provided a huge boost for the Ravens. The sophomore connected on five straight shots bridging the third and fourth quarters.
Christ the King (14-4) countered with its high-octane backcourt, which ran wild in the first half before running out of gas in the second.
Royal guard Japhet McNeil (8 points) ripped through St. Raymond’s press with ease, pulled up on the break and drilled jumpers at will.
Sophomore Chris Martin created his own shots, using several head fakes to give himself easy 12-foot jumpers. Martin, who saw extended minutes last night, was the Royals’ best player, finishing with 15 points.
Royals coach Bob Oliva knew exactly what went wrong.
“We didn’t come out with any fire in the second half and they did. It’s that simple,” Oliva said. “Our transition game wasn’t there after the half and that was the difference.”
“They figured out what we were doing and stopped it,” Martin said.
They sure did.