Hayes trounces All Hallows; Set sights on Molloy rematch
BRONX, NY – On Thursday, the East Coast will be bracing for a Bomb Cyclone, but the downpour began on Wednesday at Cardinal Hayes H.S. as the Cardinals reigned down buckets of buckets on All Hallows. When the final buzzer rang and Hayes' storm subsided, the Gaels were buried by an 84 – 49 avalanche.
Last week, unranked All Hallows shocked the CHSAA when they upset the NYCHoops.net #3 ranked Molloy by 7-points. Two days later, the Stanners avenged that loss when they thrashed Cardinals Hayes by twenty-one points. It’s interesting,” said Cardinals head Joe Lods after the 35-point win. “The Molloy loss [to All Hallows] woke them up and the Molloy loss woke us up.”
Tyrese Williams ‘18, who finished with a game high 24 points, takes the regular season Molloy loss more personal. “Beatin’ them means a lot to us,” he said. “We gotta get them back for what they did to us Friday.”
Lods admits that his team didn’t play well against Molloy. “Today we regrouped a little bit. We played at home, we got our crowd behind us and we made some shots. It’s nice to come away with a win”
Williams set the tone early as the Quinnipiac bound guard displayed almost his entire repertoire in the first minutes of the game. After scoring a jumper, a dunk, a layup in transition and a three-ball, the senior put Hayes up 9 – zip and they never looked back. The Gaels trailed by 10 at the end of the first quarter.
Terry Dawkins ‘18, Jaylen Murray ‘20 and Adam Cisse ‘18 chimed in during the second quarter and the Cardinals lead grew to 42 – 26 at the half. Hayes was battering All Hallows with almost no resistance until the end of third quarter with 46.1 seconds when a skirmish between Gaels guard Elvys Ceballos ‘19 and Hayes sharpshooter Jontai Williams ’18 ensued. Both players were ejected, and two additional Cardinals were also ejected for leaving the confines of the bench during the melee according to one of the referees.
The Cardinals would go on to win convincingly over the Gaels but will not have the services of a starter, J. Williams who must sit out two games. Brandon Giles ‘19 and Al-Qadir White ’18, the players who left the bench scuffle will have to sit out one game. Next up for Hayes is a game versus St. Raymond.
Lods said his team’s focus is defending their championship. “We hadn’t won in 27 years and we got it done last year. I tell our guys back-to-back championships. That’s unprecedented. Let’s try to get that done.”
Cardinal Hayes and Archbishop Molloy have history with one being the CHSAA defending City Champs and the other being the team that lost that championship game. While Molloy gloated in beating up Hayes last week, Coach Lods put things in perspective. “There are no big games in December. [Molloy] can call [their win over us] what they want, a revenge game. I still have the [championship] trophy up in my classroom. We got them on the big stage. They got us Off-Broadway.”
