Christ the King Battles Molloy
MIDDLE VILLAGE, NY – It was lights, camera, action when the Christ the King Royals hosted the Molloy Stanners on Friday. The nation was a witness as ESPN televised the two powerhouses who battled for 32 minutes. In a gym that was packed to the rafters, the Royals rose to the occasion, ultimately defending its home turf, topping Molloy, 64 – 61 in a nail biter.
The strategy for Christ the King was simply to attack Molloy’s lack of depth according to point guard Tyson Walker ‘18. “[Our plan was] to stop Cole Anthony ‘19, Moses Brown ‘18 and Khalid Moore ‘18 and let the rest of the team beat us.”
Buoyed by an enthusiastic, high-volume home crowd, the Royals vaulted out front quickly to a 13 – 4 lead as Walker, Quaran McPherson ‘20 and 6'11 Moussa Cisse ‘21 went full throttle. Knowing it would be difficult to match up man-to-man against Christ the King, Molloy settled in a zone and slowly inched back into the game as Orrin Barfield ‘18 and Moore began to counter. With 2:28 remaining in the warm-up quarter, Jade Tse ‘18 scored and the Stanners had its first lead.
Anthony tried to maintain that lead but a trifecta from Ryan Meyers ‘20 and a transition basket by Tavin Pierre-Phillip ‘19 tied the game at 18 as the second quarter got underway.
Moore was aggressive, attacking the rim and with additional offense from Anthony, the Stanners took a 6-point lead midway through the quarter. Walker went on a tear late in the half and with 2:45 left in the quarter gave the Royals a 1-point lead but Anthony took charge on offense and defense as first half closed out, sending Christ the King into its locker room down, 37 – 32.
Anthony increase the Royals deficit as the third quarter began but CK retaliated as three-pointers from Meyers and another from McPherson tied the game at 42. Brown, who was almost vacant in the first half, had his best quarter of the game propelling the Stanners to a 5 point in front of Christ the Kings at the end of three quarters.
Christ the King began to puncture the Stanners zone in the second half as Meyer and Pierre-Philip got lit from the perimeter. Even Cisse scored a midrange. A trey by Meyers with 4:30 left to play once again put the Royals ahead by a deuce.
Free-throws by Kofi Cockburn ‘19 and a dunk by Cisse increased CK’s point spread to six points but Moore got to the rim and narrowed the margin to four with 2:05 left in regulation. The Royals strung together a nice defensive stand until Anthony got free and drew a foul with 47.6 seconds. The junior would go 1 of 2 from the charity stripe.
Molloy grabbed the offensive rebound earning another bite at the winning apple, but the Royals once again defended well. With 6 seconds left to play Molloy was reduced to one option, a Hail Mary from beyond NBA range by Anthony that missed the mark.
Walker did a superb job running the point but praised the contributions of Meyers and Pierre-Philip. “They played good. They made a lot of open shots that helped us get the lead back.”
“I felt like we needed to show that we could play a tough team and beat a tough team,” said Royals Head Coach Joe Arbitello. “I thought we’ve done that three times already. I thought we did that against LuHi. I thought we did that against Jefferson and I thought we did that against Molloy tonight.”
Meyers led Christ the King with 17 points including five 3-pointers with Walker and Pierce-Phillip adding 11 points apiece. While the Royals were unable to stop Anthony, who scored a game high 23 points, or Moore who put up 14 points/10 rebounds, Brown was held to 10 points/6 rebounds.
