By Dylan Butler
He has brought the St. John’s Prep boys’ basketball team to the CHSAA Class A city championship game three other times and for longtime Red Storm coach Jimmy Gatto, his fourth — and possibly last — trip brought about the same result as LaSalle Academy upset St. John’s Prep, 62-60, Friday night at Iona College in New Rochelle.
“Maybe it’s just not in the cards,” said Gatto, who won back-to-back city championships when the school was called Mater Christi in 1978 and 1979. “I don’t have too many more sunsets, which makes it hard.”
As was the case in 2000, when the Red Storm featured UConn’s Taliek Brown, St. John’s Prep was the favorite — and for good reason.
Led by Fordham-bound Bryant Dunston, the Red Storm had a distinct size advantage over a LaSalle team it had already beat twice during the regular season and which featured just one player taller than 6-foot-1.
“We wanted to front him and play behind him,” LaSalle coach Bill Aberer said of Dunston. “We were hoping they wouldn’t get the ball inside to him.”
And the Red Storm didn’t.
The 6-foot-8 forward barely touched the ball in the second half, scoring just five of his 13 points in the fourth quarter as LaSalle (20-8) collapsed on Dunston as the Red Storm settled for perimeter jumpers.
“We had an obvious height advantage over them,” Dunston said. “But we couldn’t take advantage of it.”
LaSalle guard William Guy scored 13 second-half points, including five free throws in the final 46.4 seconds to ice the win for the Cardinals, who started the season 4-6 and won their first city title since 1997 when Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest led the Cardinals to the ‘AA’ crown.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life,” said Guy, who dedicated the victory to his brother Greg, who died in 1997 at the age of 33. “I stayed focused.”
LaSalle took over the game in the third quarter as Armando Rosario, Guy and Patrick Thomas each buried three-pointers to give the Cardinals a 38-33 lead.
LaSalle took the air out of the ball for almost the entire final three minutes of the quarter to take a three-point lead into the fourth quarter.
“That’s our game,” Aberer said. “Look at our size, we have five guards out there and we have to keep the ball away from people and it worked. We were lucky.”
After falling behind, 53-46, in the fourth quarter, St. John’s Prep (22-5) got within two points on a three-pointer by Serge Clement from the top of the key with 2:09 left.
But Richard Thomas missed a three-pointer and the Red Storm turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions.
Queens native Jamaal Smith, Evaris Obas and Patrick Thomas scored 11 points apiece for LaSalle, which shot 54 percent from the field and was 9-for-18 from three-point range.
Richard Thomas scored a game-high 15 points, Gary Graham had 14 points and Clement added 12 for the Red Storm.
“They’re not a Cinderella team,” Gatto said of LaSalle. “When you win 20 games, you’re a pretty good team.”
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
