Bishop Loughlin Topples 3x Champion Christ the King
JAMAICA, NY - Before this season Bishop Loughlin head coach Ed Gonzalez spoke to his team about changing the culture. He wanted them believing that they could go the distance and bring home a CHSAA Class "AA" Intersectional Championship.
That talk happened during the first day of practice in November, and from that moment on each Lion player believed that they could be the slayers of the giant that they would surely have to go through, Christ the King.
As the 3 time defending CHSAA Champions, everyone knew that the Royals would be extremely tough to beat, but for a third time this season Bishop Loughlin was able to do it as on Wednesday in the CHSAA Intersectional Semifinals at St. John's University in Queens it was an all-around team effort that led the Lions to the 68-64 victory over Christ the King.
Having beaten Christ the King twice already, once during the regular season and again in the Brooklyn/Diocese Semifinals, Bishop Loughlin knew what it took to take down the Royals, but to do it a 3rd time would take a mindset according to Gonzalez of never letting up for 32 minutes.
"We needed to take the fight to them for all 32 minutes," Gonzalez said about his team game plan. "If we did that and took it to them for the 32 minutes then I hoped we would be on top at the end of the 32 minutes."
He knew that was imperative because there are two sides to this coin. One is that having already beaten Christ the King twice they knew what they had to do to win, but the other side says that's it's always difficult to beat a team 3 times in a season, especially one as talented as the Royals.
Playing tough and hard for all 32 minutes was one key is the eyes of Gonzalez, but the other key was needing someone else besides star guards Keith Williams '17 and Markquis Nowell '18 stepping up. Those two combined for 60 of Loughlin's 77 points the last time the two teams met, and with Christ the King bent on doing all they could to contain those two this time, having someone else come up with a big performance would be crucial.
Could they get that was the real question leading into the game, and the answer early on seemed to be yes as in the early going the Lions were getting an outstanding effort from guard Idan Tretout '18 who at first was slashing his way to the rim, but then started to feel it from behind the three point line, knocking down a pair of triples in the opening half.
Even bigger than Tretout's opening half performance was the fact the Royals guard Jose Alvarado '17 was saddled with 3 first half fouls, his 3rd coming with 1:52 to go in the half on a controversial offensive foul call, sending Christ the King's star to the bench.
It wasn't all bad for the Royals though as they were staying in close contact, and even with big halves from both Tretout and Williams for Bishop Loughlin, Christ the King was only down 32-30 at the half.
To start the 3rd quarter, Christ the King head coach Joe Arbitello kept Alvarado on the bench with his 3 fouls, and right away Bishop Loughlin was able to open the lead up to 6 at 38-32 as Jordan Thomas '17 was able to score 4 quick points for the Lions around the rim, and that forced Arbitello to put back in Alvarado with 5:36 to go in the quarter.
With Alvarado back out there the offense for the Royals seemed to click more with Arbitello noting that his lead guard is the guy who constantly gets the basket and helps get everything going for Christ the King.
The game was back to a 45-44 contest after a straightaway three by wing Tyrone Cohen '16 and a pair of FT's from guard Jared Rivers '16, all points that came from Alvarado making things happen, but a hand check call on Alvarado with 2:09 to go in the 3rd quarter had him pick up foul number 4 and push him back to the bench.
It was just a 1 point game after three quarters still and Arbitello made the decision to put Alvarado back on the floor, going with the guy who helped get him there and trusting his playmaker to not overcommit and pick up his 5th foul.
The game was tied at 47 with 7:07 to go in the game, the first time Christ the King had evened the ballgame up since 22 all early in the 2nd quarter, but the tied was quickly broken as Nowell hit a three from the right corner to re-give Bishop Loughlin the lead.
Tretout would then off a Christ the King miss get the ball in transition and finish with a two handed dunk, and that would be followed by a big corner three as the junior was having the game of his life in this one.
Gonzalez asked before the game who would step up and Tretout was certainly answering the challenge in a major way, something he didn't even truly know if he could do beforehand.
"I didn't expect it but it just happened," Tretout admitted. "We knew the game plan from them would be to stop Markquis and Keith so I knew I needed to make a difference however I could. I was kind of nervous at the start but I was able to find my groove."
He found his groove in a major way as Tretout would again knock down another big three with 2:35 to play to put Bishop Loughlin up 6 as the Royals didn't seem to have an answer from the unheralded Tretout. They were doing an impressive job against the Loughlin stars who hurt them in the Diocese Semifinals, but this time it was Tretout who was doing them in.
While Christ the King was staying within striking distance because of the long range shooting of Rivers late, they could not get over the top. Tracy Cleckley '16, who had played a very strong game, missed a big three late that could've cut the deficit to 3 with just under 30 seconds to go, but it didn't fall, and that is just the way it goes sometimes Arbitello said after the game.
"Tracy had that open 3 in the corner that missed, and if the ball doesn't go in the basket there is nothing you can do about that, Arbitello stated.
It just wasn't there night as in the big spots the ball just didn't fall Christ the King's way, and with Tretout and company making the big plays when it counted most, the Lions were able to celebrate as the clock hit 0 as Bishop Loughlin defeated the Royals for the 3rd time in 4 tries this season in the most important matchup of them all, taking down Christ the King in the CHSAA Intersectional Semifinals on Wednesday 68-64.
For all the talk of the Bishop Loughlin stars of Williams and Nowell they got the big effort that Gonzalez knew they needed from one of the other pieces as Tretout had a team high 19 points in the win, a performance that Williams knew was crucial to his team's win.
"Idan stepped up so big today. He really showed he is a big time player and he really was the guy that helped us get this win," Williams said.
It wasn't just Tretout though as 3 other Bishop Loughlin players hit double figures as well with Nowell scoring 13 points, Williams adding 12 points, and Thomas chipping in with 10 points in a fantastic team victory for the Lions.
In defeat for Christ the King is was a game high 21 points for Rivers with Cohen adding 11 points, and Alvarado being limited to just 5 points in a game that saw him in foul trouble from the very start.
It's never easy to lose, but for Arbitello what makes this even harder is that Wednesday ended up being the last game that he will ever get to coach his seniors. He has grown close to this group and said after the game that this one loss won't define them, it's the years of unprecedented success that he knows will be their ultimate legacy.
"You cannot take just one game on a Wednesday night against Bishop Loughlin," Arbitello said. "You have to take what they have done over their time at Christ the King, and that is a lot of winning, a lot of city championships, and a lot of state championships."
That is exactly how the Christ the King senior group should be remembered and will be remembered as they will go down as one of the more successful groups of players in Royals history.
It wasn't enough on Wednesday though as Bishop Loughlin were able to prove that they were good enough to take down the three time champions on this night as it is now officially an All-Brooklyn CHSAA Intersectional Championship Game as Bishop Loughlin will take on Xaverian for the title on Sunday at Fordham University, and the fact that it's a Brooklyn Showdown does make it something that Gonzalez feels even more appealing, though he is just happy to be one of the two teams playing for it all.
"I think it is very interesting but honestly I am just happy to be playing and am really looking forward to Sunday," Gonzalez said.
He knows his team will be ready, and Tretout knows they will be as well because while he believes the culture has officially changed at Bishop Loughlin with the win over Christ the King they still want one more thing to top it all off, a city title.
"We wanted to start a culture and we did it by beating Christ the King, but now we have a chance to be champions."
