Christ the King 3-Beats Molloy; Wins B/Q Chip
FRESH MEADOW, NY – It’s a tall task to beat a team once, twice, let alone three times in a row, especially in the always competitive CHSAA but the Christ the King Royals found a way to do it. On Friday evening in front of a packed house at St. Francis Prep H.S. the Royals inched by Archbishop Molloy, 56 – 54 to win all three games of the trilogy along with the Brooklyn/Queens Class “AA” Sectional championship.
“[We wanted to] stop other guys from killing us and try to contain Cole Anthony ‘19,” said Royals Head Coach Joe Arbitello. “He’s a really good player.” The Royals only got half the plan right unable to silence Anthony but CTK all but muted other Stanners players presence on the court.
Christ the King took the early lead as their bigs Kofi Cockburn ‘19 and Moussa Cisse ‘21 went at 7’2” Moses Brown ‘18 often. Anthony kept the game close until a three-ball from Ryan Meyers ‘20 and a bank shot from Cockburn extended the Royals lead to 6 at the end of the opening quarter.
The Stanners got a lift in the second quarter from perimeter threat Danny Braster ‘19 and Khalid Moore ‘18 who tied the game at 18 with 3 minutes remaining in the half. Quaran McPherson ‘20 and Jared Harrison-Hunte ‘19 pushed Christ the King out front once again but a bucket by Deonte Benejan ‘20 and a dunk by Brown knotted the game at 22 at the halfway point.
To start the third quarter, the Royals senior point guard Tyson Walker went on a 7-point tear that put his team up by as many points. Molloy remained in the hunt as Anthony and Brown attacked CTK front court and was quietly gave Cockburn and Cisse four fouls apiece. With 3:30 remaining in the quarter a dunk by Brown tied the game again at 33.
Walker and Meyers gave Molloy a taste of its own medicine as they drove hard to the rim causing Brown to also pick up his fourth foul. Because of their lack of depth in the frontcourt, Stanners Head Coach Mike McCleary was forced to bench the UCLA-bound center for an extended period and the Royals pushed their advantage back to 5-point as the final quarter got underway.
It was the Cole Anthony show in the fourth quarter as he scored all but four of Molloy’s points. In herculean fashion the 5-star junior guard tied the game twice. Brown would hit two free-throws after attempting a dunk and with2:28 left to play, the Stanners had its first lead of the game.
It was also Molloy’s last lead of the game as Meyers drained another trey with 2:09 left to play that flipped the script and put CTK back up. Anthony defied the laws of gravity as he counters the Royals with a tough up n’ under and-1 layup that fouled out Cisse and gave both teams 53 points with 21.7 left in regulation.
After calling a time out, Coach Arbitello said he set up a play. Walker burned some clock as the Royals looked to take the last shot. After dribbling to his right the senior kicked the ball to Meyers who calmly nailed the trifecta from the top of the key.
With 3.1 second left in the hour glass and up by three-points, Christ the King opted to foul Anthony and send him to the free-throw line. After a Stanners timeout, the junior swishes the first but intentionally missed the second with hope of getting the rebound and putting up another.
That hope was dashed as Harrison-Hunte secured the rebound but before time officially ran out the junior celebrated prematurely and walked with .4 second left to play. Molloy inbounded the ball in the air and Anthony missed a midrange that could have changed everything.
There’s something to be said for guys that don’t mind averaging 12 points instead of 30 points,” said Arbitello. “We gotta a lot of guys that just wanna win.”
Asked about details of the play Coach Arbitello drew up that gave Christ the King their final go ahead bucket of the game, Walker said “He said if you got it go but if not, pass it to Ryan.”
Walker paced Christ the King with 16 points with Cockburn and Meyers netting 13 points and 11 points respectively. Anthony scored a game high 32 points for Molloy with Braster and Brown adding 7 points and 6 points.
