BROOKVILLE, NY – The Christ the King Royals may be 4 – 2 this season but against the Long Island Lutheran Crusaders, they are undefeated. A little-known fact is that LuHi has never beaten the Royals whether it be during the regular season, during the playoffs or even at a tournament - Ever. On Monday, the Long Island high school had another chance at redemption in a packed gym laced with Division I coaches from schools like Siena and Hofstra.
The Crusaders hosted Christ the King and although they came within seconds of putting that stat behind them, the Royals somehow managed to pull out a 57 – 55 victory from the jaws of defeat.
“If you watch Christ the King play, we gain our composure, we don’t crack under the pressure,” said Royals head coach Joe Arbitello whose team has struggled so far, this season. “It's a process. We may lose but today we took a big step in just being able to come back and win the game.”
Both teams were hyped up as the biggest game of the season thus far got underway. Donatas Kupsas ‘18 immediately attacked the rim for LuHi only to be blocked by 6’10” Moussa Cisse ‘21. 6’11” Kofi Cockburn ‘19 and Quaran McPherson ‘20 scored back-to-back before the Crusaders got its seas legs.
Down 4 – 0, Lutheran began to pile on points in transition as Kupsas, Tyson Etienne ‘19 and Tykei Greene ‘18 scored from the perimeter. Cockburn found his midrange sweet spot but PG Andre Curbelo ‘20 found multiple seams to score for LuHi. Tied at 12 with 1:50 left in the opening quarter, a bucket in the paint by Frankie Policelli ‘18 followed by an and-1 basket by Etienne gave the Crusaders a 5-point advantage to start the second quarter.
McPherson aggressively attacked the rim in the second quarter while Cisse delivered a slam dunk but LuHi was not deterred. Policelli countered from the perimeter along with put backs by Kupsas and Greene and with 2:36 left in the half, LuHi had reestablished a 7-point lead.
That lead evaporated as McPherson continued to penetrate the Royals defense. An emphatic dunk by Cockburn ended the half with both team locked at 27 apiece.
LuHi and CTK experimented with zones and traps as well as sprinkling of man-to-man defense throughout the game but in the third quarter, cracks began to show in the Crusader’s armor. On both offense and defense, 6’8” Esam Mostafa ‘19, the normally aggressive big man for LuHi, appeared to be somewhat intimidated by the Royals' bigness in the frontcourt. Almost smelling his timidity, Cockburn and Cisse unleashed baskets in the paint and suddenly the Crusaders were down 39 – 31 midway through the quarter.
Curbelo made some sensational plays as primary point guard for Lutheran, often sacrificing his body in the process, but Tyson Walker ‘18, his Royals counterpart responded well on both ends of the court for CK. Policelli ended the quarter on a high note as he scored in transition, but the Long Island school was still down by seven points as the final quarter got underway.
The Crusaders came out to start the quarter, guns blazing. The play of an unusually animated Policelli was particularly potent. Powering up inside was LuHi’s other big man Messiah Swinson ‘18 who displayed the aggression that Mostafa was lacking, drew fouls on the Royals bigs in the paint. Unfortunately, Swinson was a liability as he was unable to capitalize from the free-throw line. The two bigs combined scored zero points and less than double-digit rebounds.
Poor foul shooting would ultimately be Lutheran’s Achilles heel in this game but even through the internal and external adversity, the Crusaders persevered. Implementing a combo of a presses, zones and hard traps, LuHi got the Royals to cough up the ball and in a team effort, tied the game at 51 with two minutes remaining in regulation as Policelli scored a basket and-1.
Another hard-fought basket by Policelli and a steal by Greene to Etienne for the jumper gave Lutheran its first lead since the first quarter. 52.6 second remained and the Royals suddenly found themselves down by 4-points, but the Middle Village school seemed to know that more than just a game was at stake.
Cockburn immediately powered up inside and fouled Policelli out. The junior center promptly knocked down both free-throws. Swinson then turned the ball over after an ill-advised attack to the rim. In transition, Curbelo fouled Ryan Meyers ‘19 to prevent a basket and with 39.5 ticks on the clock the junior guard drained both shots from the charity stripe to knot the game at 55.
The Royals pressured LuHi full court, forcing head coach John Buck to call two unwanted timeouts. On the inbounds, the Crusaders had a broken play and McPherson got the rebound off a turnover and with 4.8 seconds was fouled by Greene who joined Policelli on the bench with his fifth foul. McPherson drained both free-throws and that’s all she wrote.
[McPherson] was incredible said Coach Arbitello. “He’s a competitor. He goes out and he competes every second.”
“Not too much went right tonight,” explained a somber Coach Buck. “I think our press in the second half gave us a shot. Other than that, [we] did not play well tonight.” Buck credited the Royals pressure on his guards which caused turnovers. “I thought [Christ the King] really got on the glass. I think we shot 7 of 19 from the foul line and I don’t know what we shot from three, but it was a poor percentage.”
While each team had its strategy, perhaps the secret sauce that put the Christ the King over the top was each coach’s decision regarding their win/loss history against each other. Coach Buck said he didn’t share the fact that they’ve never beaten the Royals, believing the game itself was motivation enough. Conversely, Arbitello said his team understood Lutheran had never beaten them. “You wanna represent Christ the King the right way,” he said. “If you’ve never lost to a team you don’t wanna lose.”
McPherson led Christ the King with 16 points with Cisse and Cockburn contributing 15 points (11 rebounds) and 14 points (12 rebounds & 4 blocks) respectively. Etienne paced L.I. Lutheran with 16 points while Policelli added 14 points.
