CHSAA Archdiocesan Quarterfinals

BRONX, NY – While winning or losing the first round of Sunday’s Archdiocesan Tournament is technically not the end of the road for the six participating teams, it is the last best hope of getting a league trophy this season for a few. With shocking upsets throughout the regular season, an unexpected first round win could very well be the birth of a Cinderella team or a dark horse.

On this day, however, in the St. Raymond HS gymnasium, the higher seeds were the victors, with one exception.

The first game of the afternoon featured #3 seeded Cardinal Hayes from the Bronx versus the #6 seed St. Peter’s Eagles representing Staten Island. While the odds were in favor of the Cardinals, it was how Hayes won that was the shocker.

The Eagles usually batter their opponents with an aerial assault but from the opening tip-off, St. Peter’s got some of their own medicine, absorbing incoming from PG Julien Soumaoro ’20 and sophomore Jalen Simmons ’22 who sparked an 8 – 0 for Hayes. The Staten Island squad could only produce 4 points in the warm-up quarter and found themselves down by twelve to start the second.

St. Peter’s began to organize in the latter part of the first half and started to give as good as they got. Perimeter shots from Matt Bedford ‘20 along with sparse buckets from Liam Murphy ‘20 and Thomas Keane ‘22 temporarily stopped the bleeding for the Eagles but the Cardinals countered with timely scoring from Soumaoro. A late trey by Jaylen McCoy ‘21 increased the Cardinals advantage to 28 – 17 at the half.

Up by 11 to start the third quarter, Hayes turned up the heat with 14 – 1 run and expanded their lead to 21 points heading into the final quarter. Shemani Fuller ‘20 punctuated the outcome as Soumaoro fed him multiple alley-oops. Murphy, who was a no-show for three quarters, finally displayed his abilities draining five perimeter shots in the final minutes but it was too little, too late for the Eagles.

Fuller paced Cardinal Hayes with 18 points with Soumaoro adding 15 points. Murphy scored a game high 25 points for the Eagles.

The plan was simple if the #7 seeded Mountaineers were going to pull off the upset against a fully loaded #2 seeded Archbishop Stepinac. Try to contain the Crusaders go-to-guys and force their role players to produce.

That strategy showed signs of hope in the first half as Mt. Saint Michaels sic’d 5’8” point guard Tyler Hawkins ‘22 on R.J. Davis ‘20. The sophomore stuck to the script and stuck to the North Carolina -bound guard on defense like white on rice, limiting Davis to only 5 first half points. Stepinac’s other star player, A.J. Griffin ‘21 was in his first game back from a leg injury but the Duke commit was clearly not 100%.

How did Stepinac still manage to still gain a 7 point lead even with the Mountaineers getting balanced scoring from Ibrahim Wattera ‘20, Mazi Campbell ‘20 and freshman Javoy Thompson ‘23? On this day, a Crusaders role player was hot like fire. Luke Fizulich ‘20 was not only solid from the perimeter, he hit clutch shots for Stepinac to keep their momentum intact. Stepinac other role player, Samuel Gibbs '22 hit big shots as well,

Whereas the Crusaders maintained a consistent attack throughout the first half, Mt. Saint Michael went cold in the second quarter, netting zero deuces and a few free-throws. A Hail Mary heave by Davis at the buzzer was a preview of things to come.

A 38 – 29 deficit was the problem that the Mountaineers needed to solve. Fizulich cooled off in the third quarter but Davis finally solved the Hawkins Rubik’s Cube and went off, scoring in a variety of ways. Griffin also scored some vital buckets for Stepinac who as a team almost doubled Mt. Saint Michaels offensive output in the quarter.

In a 24 point sinkhole to start the final quarter, things went from bad to worse for Mt. St. Michael as Malcolm Chimezie ‘21 pounded them in the paint and Fizulich knocking down two of his six trifectas.

Davis led Stepinac with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists followed by Fizulich with 21 points and 3 rebounds. Campbell was the high man for Mount St. Michael with 15 points.

If ever there was a chance to be an upset, it would most likely be when the #4 battles the #5 seed. Such was the case during the final game of the evening with Iona Prep and Monsignor Scanlan going at it. On paper, both teams seemed pretty evenly matched, so it came down to the intangibles for win.

The Gaels lived up to its namesake in the first quarter, blowing by Scanlan with a 14 – 3 run spearheaded by R.J. Greene ‘22, Aiden Hildebrand ‘20 and Marquis Dukes ‘20. The Crusaders tried to absorb the hit retaliating perimeter shooting from Dayton bound SG Koby Brea ‘20. Behind by 7 at the end of the first quarter, Scanlan stayed close and only trailed 36 – 30 to begin the second half.

Iona Prep hovered at about minus six for most of the third quarter but a strong finish by Marquis Dukes and Keeshawn Jones ‘20 cut the deficit to a point. A buzzer beater by Rodney “D.J.” Bailey ‘20 extended the Crusaders lead back to four points heading into the big finish.

The fourth quarter was owned by Brea and Bailey. Brea knocked down long distance shot which are his specialty but he also attacked the rim was like butter from the charity stripe. Bailey was hard to guard and also found himself drawing fouls and making free-throws. Iona Prep got to within three points of the lead but just didn’t reliable fourth quarter scoring to avoid the upset loss.

Scanlan high scorer was Brea with 24 points with Bailey contributing 21 points. Jones paced Iona Prep with 17 points.