By Anthony Bosco
The Christ the King Royals clinched the Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan championship last week with a 66-53 win over the Holy Cross Knights. The team followed up that performance with a 65-57 victory over Monsignor McClancy to finish the regular season 10-2.
The two wins, coupled with Archbishop Molloy’s 63-45 loss to Bishop Loughlin last week, guaranteed the Royals a first-round bye in the upcoming Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan Tournament, to start Sunday at St. Francis College in Brooklyn.
“We’re ecstatic,” said CK head coach Bob Oliva. “We certainly weren’t the favorite going in. Winning it was a pleasant, pleasant experience for us. Everything just fell into place.”
The Royals lost their first league game of the season to Xaverian and were 5-7 at one point before the pieces started coming together.
“As the season progressed we had a couple of things that helped us move ahead,” Oliva said. “We were just struggling because we were young. We were a different team then.”
Several upsets last week evened out the B/Q standings, as both Molloy and the Xaverian Clippers finished in a statistical dead heat at 8-4, with Holy Cross and Loughlin deadlocked at 7-5 for fourth. St. Francis Prep (2-10) and McClancy (0-12) round out the division.
According to Paul Gilvary, the Holy Cross head coach and league commissioner, Xaverian and Molloy split their season series and had identical records against the other teams in the division. And while a coin flip is usually the next step, Gilvary got the coaches of both clubs to agree to a different tie-breaker — the final score of the St. John’s-Duke game.
If the total combined points of both teams ended up as an odd number, Molloy would get the No. 2 seed, and vice versa. Duke beat St. John’s 91-59, enabling the Clippers to take on No. 7 McClancy Sunday at 1 p.m. at St. Francis College.
The second game, slated for 3 p.m., will feature No. 3 Molloy against No. 6 St. Francis Prep and the 4-5 game, scheduled for 5 p.m. will pit Holy Cross against Bishop Loughlin.
“It’s a whole new season now with the Diocesan tournament,” Gilvary said. “It’s like a second lease on life for everybody.”
Christ the King will next play on Tuesday, Feb. 27, against the winner of the first-round Holy Cross-Bishop Loughlin matchup, also at St. Francis College. The championship game is slated for Friday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Francis College.
Following the Brooklyn/Queens tournament, the city Intersectionals will start March 4 at Manhattan College, with the Brooklyn/Queens winner receiving a bye into the quarterfinals, to be played Wednesday, March 7, and Thursday, March 8. The semifinals will move to Fordham University on Sunday, March 11, and the city championship will be played on Wednesday, March 14, also at Fordham.
The city winner will go on to play the winner of the St. Dominic’s-St. Mary’s matchup for the right to compete in the state Catholic ‘A’ championship Sunday, March 18, also at Fordham.
In the ‘B’ division, Queens’ lone representative, St. John’s Prep, which finished the season 2-12 in league play and 5-19 overall — just one year removed from an appearance in the ‘B’ city title game — is seeded No. 13 and will play the No. 4 seed, Iona Prep, Saturday at Mount St. Michael. Tipoff is 4 p.m.
In the ‘C’ division, Cathedral Prep will be the borough’s only hope of a title, as the Crusaders, who finished 11-3 in league play and 19-5 overall, will play at Sacred Heart in Yonkers Sunday at 1:45 p.m. in the quarterfinals against Salesian.
Archbishop Molloy 80, St. Francis Prep 73. The Stanners held off the Terriers despite a monster game by senior Rashad Bell, who scored 52 points, including six three-pointers and 20-of-21 from the foul line. Molloy was led by Thomas Harrison’s 21 points, 20 points and 10 rebounds from Wendell Gibson and 19 points from John Sikiric.
Xaverian 61, Holy Cross 48. The Knights dropped their second straight league game Friday night, falling to the Clippers in Brooklyn. Chris Taft led the winners with 15 points. Point guard Chris Fileti missed his second straight game with a foot injury.
Christ the King 65, Monsignor McClancy 57. The Royals held off the Crusaders thanks to eight points apiece by Anthony Negreanu and Mike Englert Friday night in Middle Village. The loss was McClancy’s last hope at scoring its first league win.
St. John’s Prep 72, Bishop Ford 66. The Red Storm scored their second league win of the year Friday behind Descean Burke’s 16 points and eight assists. Eddie Moore had 14 points and eight boards and Tasheen McCall added 10 points and dished out six assists.
Cathedral Prep 87, Monsignor Scanlan 73. The Crusaders locked up second place with this 14-point win Friday. Vinny LaPuma scored a game-high 33 points to lead Cathedral.
Christ the King 66, Holy Cross 53. Rob Barrett led the Royals with 23 points in this division-clinching win last week. Peedy Nelson added 14 and Japhet McNeil contributed 10 points and seven assists.
Bishop Loughlin 63, Archbishop Molloy 45. Wendell Gibson scored 10 points for Molloy, but the Lions got 19 from Teddy Mumford and 11 from Rondell Watts en route to victory.
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 130.
