Two CHSAA Teams at a Crossroads
BRIARWOOD, NY – The Archbishop Molloy Stanners and the Bishop Loughlin Lions were at a crossroads when they met for an in-league game on Tuesday. Forget that Molloy, who is currently ranked #5 in our ranking, was voted #1 in the preseason and that Loughlin who was voted #8 preseason is no longer in the NYCHoops.net top ten. More importantly, a loss for Stanners or the Lions on would give them a .500 record in the CHSAA B/Q league so this game had repercussions no matter how you look at it.
In addition, both teams were overcoming their own personal obstacles. Molloy would once again be without the services of its rivals.com 5-star point guard Cole Anthony ‘19 who’s still out due to and injury to his left heel. On Sunday, during the Apparel Challenge, Anthony’s absence had dire consequences with the Stanners losing big to Thomas Jefferson Campus in a non-league game.
Loughlin, has a unique impediment to success on the court in that their gym has been and is out-of-service. A situation which not only severely hampers their ability to practice but takes away any home field advantage with every game being an away game. On this day, Archbishop Molloy made the appropriate adjustments and promptly defeated Bishop Loughlin, 75 – 61.
“We got scoring from all five positions today on the floor which is something that we’ve been lacking from,” said Stanners head coach Mike McCleary. He particularly praised the efforts of Khalid Moore '18 who led Molloy with 19 points and 8 rebounds. “Khalid made some huge baskets when the game was on the line.”
Archbishop Molloy systematically pulled away from the Lions with buckets from Jade Tse ‘18 and Danny Braster '19 even with a backdrop of transition dunks by Justin Champagnie ‘19 that kept Loughlin within striking range. Molloy led by six at the end of the first quarter.
Moore stepped up his game in the second quarter and with assistance from Moses Brown the Stanners increased it lead to 16 points with 3:10 left in the first half. Champagnie received some offensive assistance from his twin brother Julian Champagnie ‘19 but it was not enough to offset, Molloy’s firepower. Consequently, the Lion’s deficit remained at 43 – 27 as the second half got underway.
In the third quarter, the Champagnie twins scored no baskets other than 4 free-throws combined which was odd as Coach McCleary rested the 7’2” Brown, Molloy’s primary rim protector, for the entire quarter. Loughlin did make headway as Tyshawn High '19 filled the offensive void scoring inside and out while also getting to the charity stripe. With 1:43 remaining in the third quarter, the Lions were within 12 points but a buzzer beater three-pointer by Moore pushed Molloy’s advantage back to 15 points.
Justin Champagnie reemerged on the scoring scene in the final quarter as the Lions feverishly tried to close the game but with no help, the tandem of Moore, Brown and Tse proved to be too much.
McCleary said that Molloy made the necessary adjustments to compensate for the loss of Anthony which resulted in the loss to NYCHoops.net’s #1 ranked team. “Jefferson pressed us as this team did. We didn’t have the time to prepare,” sad McCleary who admitted that the Stanners are built around Anthony regarding handling pressure. “We loss Cole Sunday morning. We didn’t have a practice to prepare for it. We had a practice to prepare for Loughlin.”
While Moore was high scorer for Molloy, Brown added a double-double (17 points & 10 rebounds) with Tse contributing 17 points. Justin Champagnie led Bishop Loughlin with a game high 22 points.
The Stanners record improves to 3- 1 in-league and 6 – 4 overall while the Lions fall to 2 – 2 in-league and 4 – 8 overall.
