A Royal future for Christ the King?
FLUSHING, NY – Pessimists see a glass as half empty while optimists see the glass as half full. The Christ the King Royals may not have their full entourage of players on Friday but the fact that they still were able to decimate unranked Holy Cross, 83 – 59, on the road, in their season opener was a good sign of things to come said head coach Joe Arbitello.
“When you put 83-points up on the board that’s a good win,” said Arbitello even though he admitted his squad didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. Christ the King was absent two key players in their front court. 6’10” forward Moussa Cisse ’21 is currently out with a foot injury but Coach Arbitello believes significant change comes even sooner that. “Forget about Cisse [right now]. When power forward Jared Harrison-Hunte ‘19 comes back we get a lot bigger.” Harrison-Hunte, 6’6” bruiser is finishing up the Football recruiting season and his return to the basketball team is imminent.
It was the back court of 6’3” Quaran McPherson ‘20, Ryan Myers ‘20 and successive perimeter shots from 5’10” point guard Sterling Jones ‘21 that ultimately did in Holy Cross. With no Royals player over 6’5”, Arbitello said he made no adjustments. “We’re gonna play the same way. We’ll just have more options inside [when Cisse and Harrison-Hunte return].
The Knights seemed to hang with Christ the King throughout the first half with 6’0” Shemar Franklin ‘19 and 6’2” Elijah Perry ‘19 stoking it from the perimeter. Only ahead 33 – 29 at the half, Christ the King turned on the afterburners in the third quarter, with Jones and Myers getting hot like fire. A 9 – 0 Royals run left the Knights trailing by 15 points at the end of three quarters.
Christ the King then coasted to a 24-point win subbing out with 3 minutes left in regulation. Coach Arbitello attributed the win to a simple math problem. “We went four for 16 in the first half and 7 for 14 in the second half. There’s the difference in the game.”
The NYCHoops.net #2 ranked Royals first real test comes on Sunday versus a taller and athletic, #1 ranked South Shore in the Battle in the Apple Tournament, Arbitello said the strategy is the same. “To guard them and play our game. Hopefully we shoot it well.”
Jones led Christ the King with 21 points, draining three of his five treys in the fourth quarter. McPherson and Myers added 18 points and 16 points respectively. Perry was the high man for Holy Cross with 12 points.
