St. Rays wins season opener over Holy Cross

FLUSHING, NY - St. John's assistant coach Tony Chiles was in the building to check out St. Raymond's sophomore sensation Sid Wilson and he didn't disappoint.

The 6'6" forward scored 27 points to go along with 6 rebounds and seven blocks to help the Ravens secure a 74-69 win in their opening game of the season versus Holy Cross.

"We wanted to come out and make a statement," said Wilson. "Some people have been sleepin' on us so we wanted to come out and prove that we're still a good team."

Wilson acknowledges that his team is still young but St. Ray's was still able to get it done due to Wilson's stellar performance along with a solid game from Cahiem Brown. The junior guard was a stat stuffer adding 16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals.

As the contest began, 6'5" junior Christian Wilson (25 points) helped to propel Holy Cross to an early lead but tough shots by S. Wilson and a transition layup by Brown kept the game tight. Junior guard Jamel Horton's (20 points) trey with 4:04 gave the Knights a brief 2 point lead but S. Wilson was a hard guard and St. Rays continued to nip at the Knight's heels. Guard Malik Mooving (8 points) pushed the Ravens in front at the 1:30 mark as they dominated the offensive boards and they took a 20-18 lead into the second quarter.

The Knights fell behind by 5 points early in the second quarter off an emphatic dunk by S. Wilson. Horton kept the Knights in the hunt as the game briefly became a track meet but Holy Cross needed to step their front-court defense in order to keep up. "We're a fastbreak team so we have to play hard and play defense," Brown said.

Another slam dunk by S. Wilson was countered by a trey from Jermaine Bishop (20 points) but turnovers by the Knights led to transition point by St. Rays. Junior guard Chaz Platt (2 points) came off the bench and scored a runner that cut the Knights deficit to 32-31 with 1:08 left in the half. C. Wilson would then score inside off a set play to regain the lead for the Knights with 45 seconds left. Mooving drew a foul and put the Ravens back on top with free throws but C. Wilson took S. Wilson off the dribble with a fade away at the buzzer. The Knights took a 35-34 advantage into the locker room.

The Ravens took back their lead as S. Wilson began take over in the paint. Knights head coach Terry Tarpey called another quick timeout with 4:18 to settle his crew as the Ravens lead grew to 43-37.

The momentum was had shifted towards the Bronx, NY school as the Ravens stepped up their defensive resolve. Point guard Isaiah Washington (13 points) hit and and-1 to increase Ray's lead to 50-39 at the two minute mark. Horton helped get the Cross deficit to 8 but a turnover by Bishop at half pushed the Ravens lead back to double digits with 34 seconds. C. Wilson drew a foul at the buzzer and went 1-2 at the line.

The Knights were in an 8 point hole to start the fourth. Bishop redeemed his earlier end of quarter faux pas with and-1 to slice into the Raven's lead. With 6:10 left in the game C. Wilson drew a foul on S. Wilson and shaved the lead to 56-52. C. Wilson soon cut the lead to 58-54 but S. Wilson pushed lead to 7 off a putback with 4:12

At the 2 minute mark, the Ravens began to milk their lead which grew to 65-55. A bucket by Bishop did get the lead down to 6 points with 19.4 seconds left to play but it was too late..

St. Raymond's head coach Jorge Lopez admitted that their first game of the season was tough. [Holy Cross] already had two games in and we were a bit rusty." Coach Lopez added that he instructed the team to raise their intensity in the second half. "At halftime, we talked a lot about tightening [our defense up]."

Coach Lopez was critical of his young squad and felt his team was step too slow but credited them for turning around in the second half. "We have to understand that we have to sustain that intensity for 32 minutes," he said.