St. Raymond Dashes CTK’s Hopes
MIDDLE VILLAGE, NY – It’s been a tough season for Christ the King but things started to pick-up in February when the Royals strung together seven wins in a row. With the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens championships on the horizon, C.T.K. needed three things to happen to go from almost worst to first in their league’s standing. They needed to beat the NYCHoops.net #1 ranked St. Raymond Ravens and they also needed Xaverian and St. Francis Prep to lose.
Xaverian did their part, getting clobbered by 18 points to unranked Holy Cross. That turned out to be a moot point for the Royals who fell short to the Ravens on Sunday, 75 – 66.
St. Raymond head coach Jorge Lopez knew that the Royals were going to come at them hard to get that eighth win in a row, to end the regular season on the most positive of notes. “We knew that they were a really good shooting team and they were hot,” said Lopez. “Our job was to make sure we contained them.”
It was senior night at Christ the Kings and most of the starters were temporarily replaced by upper classmen but a trey by Royals Ryan Myers ‘20 at the onset of first quarter set the tone that things were not going to be warm and fuzzy. A three-two zone managed to not only keep the Ravens at bay but gave C.T.K. a slight lead until midway through the quarter when the starters returned.
Malachi Smith ‘21 proved to be a handful for Royals to contain. His quickness and mid-range scoring were a zone buster. That coupled with the frontcourt dominance of 6'3" Kedar Davis ‘22 pushed St. Ray’s out front by a point as the warm-up quarter ended.
In the second quarter both teams were effective offensively. Smith continued being a hard guard for Christ the King’s frontcourt, receiving back-up from Gary Grant ‘20. The Royals hit back with 5'10" Sterling Jones ‘21 and 5'11" Nicholas Molina ‘20 countering.
A minute-fifty remained in the half and the score was tied at 21 and suddenly, with help from Luis Kortright ‘20 and6'0" Reggie Hudson ‘20, the Ravens amassed a 10 – 0 run. Christ the King bounced back finishing the half with a 7 – 0 run which left the Royals only down, 31 – 28.
The second half was a dogfight with both combatants leaving it all on the court but for the Royals, they were always playing catch-up. Never leading, Christ the King got pounded in the paint on both ends of the court by Davis.
“Kedar Davis is our unsung hero,” confessed Coach Lopez. “A lot of times, he doesn’t get credit for a lot of stuff that he does. He’s often asked to guard the best player and does a tremendous job on the boards. He actually leads the team in charges.”
Even with an offensive boost from Jones and 6'2" Lovell Smith '23 and ancillary scoring from Molina, Christ the King was still down by six to begin the fourth quarter. Matador defense didn’t help much either as it allowed St. Raymond to extend its lead to 8 points. The Royals would eventually lose by nine.
M. Smith paced St. Raymond with 20 points. Kortwright and Davis added 12 points and 10 points respectively. Myers led Christ the King with 16 points
Christ the King will be in third place in the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens with St. Ray’s finishing up in 1st place in the CHSAA NY.
