The Catholics Go To War!

WESTCHESTER, NY – In New Rochelle and White Plains respectively, two all-out wars were waged on Wednesday between factions of the Catholic High School Athletic Association better known as the CHSAA. Archbishop Molloy and Christ the King, representing the Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan, went up against Iona Prep and Archbishop Stepinac from the New York Archdiocese. Both contests were replete with skilled warriors, were most-excellent and of course, NYCHoops.net was there.

The Molloy Stanners, from Queens, had a helluva time playing out-of-state, suffering a couple of losses. Their game against Iona Prep would be their first real local test and they passed. Jettisoned out front by back-to-back-to-back-to-back three-pointers from 6’2” Cole Anthony ‘19, Molloy's defense kept the Gaels scoreless until there was only 4:30 left in the opening quarter.

To say Anthony was on fire would be an understatement. When asked, what was the Stanners plan of attack, Coach Mike McLeary replied, “When Cole comes out like that, that is the plan.”

Once Iona Prep settled in, they used home field advantage to help rebuild their momentum. “We knew they were going to settle down and start making their shots because they’re a good team,” said McLeary who was absolutely right.

6’8” Josh Alexander ‘18 and 6’9” Soulymane Koureissi ‘19 tried to mount a comeback aided and abetted by 6’1” Romar Reid ‘18. However, while the Gaels got buckets, they didn’t do a good job at preventing Molloy from getting theirs. As a result, Iona Prep who trailed 13 – 0 after the pilot and multiple reruns of the Cole Anthony Show aired, still trailed 24 -13 to start the second quarter.

The Gaels opened the second quarter with buckets from 6’5” Bryce Willis ‘18 but 6’11” Moses Brown ‘18 countered with baskets for Molloy down low. The tide began to turn for Iona Prep late in the half when Alexander and Koureissi initiated their own three-point aerial extravaganza. A bucket by 6’4” Nick Brennan ‘17 at the buzzer capped off a 17 – 8 Gaels run that closed their deficit to 40 – 47 at the half.

Anthony was 'next level' all evening, coming through with clutch buckets every time Iona Prep tried to creep up on them but with 3:41 left in the third, Brennan broke through for the Gaels, draining a three-pointer that briefly put the Gaels out front by a point. 6’7” Xavier Willson ‘19 quickly snuffed that lead. A pass from Anthony to Brown in transition for the dunk along with buckets by 6’6” Khalid Moore ‘18 had the Stanners with a 5-point advantage with 1:48 left in the quarter.

Iona Prep trailed by three points to start the final quarter but retook the lead briefly when Brown was forced to sit due to foul trouble. The Gaels lead however, at its pinnacle was only 1 point and was soon evaporated by yet another Anthony trifecta.

Down by six points with 16.7 second left in regulation, Iona Prep made one final run at it when Alexander netted a three-ball. A steal by the junior followed by a time-out by Coach Vic Quirolo with 8.2 second gave them a chance to run a set play and possibly take the game into overtime. A five-second violation on the inbound all but ruined that storybook come from behind win.

“Cole, at the beginning of the game, was just phenomenal,” said Quirolo. “He took over the game and willed them to a big lead. We had to do a better job on him. You have to bring your A-game when you play against them”

McLeary was happy with the win even though he wasn’t ecstatic about the foul calling on Brown. “I thought our kids gutted out the win even things weren’t going our way.”

According to Coach McLeary, the Stanners response against Iona Prep’s onslaught was different then their run ins with out-of-state teams. “On the road, when things went bad they sort of spiraled bad,” said McLeary. "Here when we made our run we were able to handle the push back.”

Anthony led all scorers with 31 points, scoring four of his five threes in the first quarter. Brown finished with 16 points with Moore adding 7 points. Alexander netted 19 points with Koureissi contributing 15 points.

The Christ the King Royals had their hands full all night against Archbishop Stepinac, a team that was on a two-game losing streak and in need of a pick-me-up before travelling to Florida for a tournament. “We gotta win,” said 6’0” Jorden Means ‘17 speaking to the mindset of his team. “You enter each game and you wanna win every game but we needed this especially to gain momentum going into next week.”

Christ the King had their own set of problems. With alternative point guard Tyson Walker ‘18 and 6’10” big man Kofi Cockburn ‘19 out with injuries, the Royals needed significant input from its role players and major input from their commander-in-chief Jose Alvarado ‘17.

“Our plan was to keep ten eyes to Jose at all times and make it really frustrating for him,” said Stepinac head coach Patrick Massaroni. "To make sure he saw the ‘Stepinac’ across our chest.” In addition, the Crusaders gave Christ the King a mouth full of 2-3 zone defense. "We wanted to make the rest of the team beat us and I think we did that."

The strategy was indeed effective against the Middle Village powerhouse who other than Alvarado, received sparse offense. Major firepower from Alan Griffin ‘18 eventually put Christ the King in the hole by seven-points to begin the second quarter, an uphill battle would suffer an incline as Means drove hard to the hole putting Stepinac up by 11 points early in the quarter. 6'7" Phillps Joseph '19 and 5'9" Ricardo McLeod '18 finally responded for the Royals but back-to-back three-pointers by 5’11” Eduardo Miniya ‘19 and a bucket by 5’10” R.J. Davis ‘20 increased the Crusader’s lead to 35 – 21 at the half.

In Cole Anthony-esque fashion, Minaya swished his third three-pointer as the third quarter got underway. That and a steal by Means on the inbound along with a coast-to-coast basket by the senior suddenly had put Christ the King in a tizzy. Down 40 -22, and with a lack of overall production, Alvarado was forced to go into offensive overdrive, scoring by any means necessary.

The Georgia Tech bound senior got most of his points by drawing fouls and getting to the line and cut the lead to 8 points to begin the fourth quarter with help for 6’6” bulldozer Jared Harrison-Hunte ‘19. Davis did a yeoman’s job running the point for the Crusaders and going up against Alvarado. “R.J. is mature beyond his years,” said Coach Massaroni. “He’s a freshman playing in a big-time league and he continues to grow.”

Due to Stepinac’s combined effort, eight points was as close as Christ the King could get in the fourth quarter. With 57 seconds left to play, Stepinac was comfortably ahead by 11 points. Griffin was looking to put the icing on the cake with an emphatic dunk down the lane but fell awkwardly after being fouled. Griffin had to be taken to the hospital on a stretcher with Davis taking the foul shots in his stead. An unfortunate ending to an otherwise exciting game.

Griffin led Stepinac with 20 points with Means and Miniya contributing 18 points and 11 points respectively. Alvarado scored a game high 29 points. No other Christ the King player scored in double digits.

“Anytime you get a win in the CHSAA double A is big and any time you can beat Christ the King - I know they’re depleted and have a couple of guys who are banged up but they’ve [still] got guys,” said Massaroni. “They’ve got players and [Coach] Joe [Arbitello] does a great job and they’re winners for a reason.”