LuHi vs Stepinac: Battle Royale (Part One)
WHITE PLAINS, NY – Covering my first game since March 11th, 2020 due to COVID-19, it was quite gratifying that it would be a knock down, drag out, down to the wire battle between two titans of New York high school basketball. Over the years, the Long Island Lutheran Crusaders have represented the best in Nassau/Suffolk County while the Archbishop Stepinac Crusaders have dominated things North of NYC. Both teams can make valid claims for being the best programs in New York State but on Tuesday, in the battle of the Crusaders, LuHi squeaked out a 47 - 46 slimmest of victories, proving, at least for the next 24 hours, they are the better Crusader's squad .
Trailing by a point with 1.2 seconds left to play in regulation, the Lutheran Crusaders pulled out a win from the jaws of defeat as Jayden Reid ‘23 punctuated his 4th quarter hero ball with the game winning shot. “We forced the ball towards the backcourt [on the in-bound pass],” said Stepinac head coach Pat Massaroni. “Reid made a great play, splitting three defenders and a big finish at the buzzer.”
Truth be told, the odds favored LuHi. Against a division I starting five, Stepinac was without the services of their go-to-guy Duke bound AJ Griffin ‘21 who was still MIA due to injury. With 6’8” Kasper Klaczek dominating the boards and Andres Pinzon raining down threes from the perimeter, L.I. Lutheran took an eight-point lead to start the second quarter.
Stepinac upped the ante in the second quarter, increasing their defensive pressure along with Malcolm Chimezie ‘21 competing for rebounds more voraciously. Timely offense by Samuel Gibbs ‘22 helped to precipitate a 11 – 4 run for the home team but Stepinac would still trail 22 – 21 at the half.
Early in the third quarter, Stepinac claimed a lead with 7:42 left in the quarter, as the result of a clutch bucket at the rim by Joel Baez ‘22. That lead quickly evaporated as Drissa Traore ‘21 countered with an emphatic dunk.
LuHi extended its advantage to 7 points before Baez once again came up big to stop the bleeding. Stepinac only trailed by three points as the final stanza got underway. In the battle of the bigs, Chimezie did a Hulk impression in the fourth quarter coming out of his shell to own the paint while Klaczek was hampered by foul trouble through most of the game. Boogie Fland ‘24 powered up well down the stretch for Stepinac keeping his Crusaders in the hunt, but it would be the Reid Show in the fourth quarter that put the final nail in the Westchester squad’s coffin.
Reid, the diminutive point guard, was the master of the mid-range floater, scoring 10 of his game high 16 points in 4th quarter, including the game winner at the buzzer. Pinzon contributed 8 points with Klaczek and Traore adding 7 points each. Fland led Stepinac with 12 points with Chimezie and Gibbs contributing 11 points and 9 points, respectively.
Part two of the Battle Royale will took place on Wednesday at Long Island Lutheran HS in Brookville, NY. LuHi would notch a definitive, 66 - 39 win to sweep the series 2 - 0.
