By Christine Sampson
The Royals opened the Brooklyn-Queens Division I Diocesan title game with an 11-2 run, went on a 15-5 scoring spree in the second quarter and never looked back as they trounced Archbishop Molloy, 59-36, to win their 21st consecutive league championship Saturday at St. John's University.CK faces St. Peter's in a state CHSAA Class AA semifinal Thursday at the College of Staten Island at 8 p.m. The winner advances to face St. John the Baptist (L.I.) in Sunday's 'AA' final at St. John's.Pressure defense was the method, one that Royals coach Bob Mackey had altered slightly for Saturday's game.”You make little changes, and little changes made a huge difference,” said Mackey, whose team remains undefeated at 25-0.Royals senior Carrem Gay said it took her team several days to adjust to the changes, which included putting a virtual wall up in front of Molloy's inbound passers.”It's not always easy, but usually we get it,” said Gay, who had 13 rebounds to go with a team-high 24 points.Gay was on a personal mission, having played too sluggish a game for her liking against Bishop Kearney in the league semifinals last Thursday. CK won, 81-34, but it was on her mind all Saturday morning. When it came down to game time, Gay scored 8 during her team's 15-5 second quarter.”That's Carrem. She's the leader of the team,” junior Tina Charles (17 points, 15 rebounds) said.Nakejia Kelly added 10 points and Lorin Dixon had 5 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists for CK.Molloy (13-14) also fed CK's advantage with free throws. Two starters, including NYU-bound senior Jessica McEntee (11 points), had picked up three fouls before halftime, at which point CK led 35-16. Granted, the Royals were playing a team that was without its scoring leader Ð well, everything leader, to be more specific. Molloy's Stanford-bound senior, Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, missed most of the season with a knee injury.”We just had to keep playing like there was Roz,” Gay said. “We knew who their key players were.”Among those key players were McEntee, E.J. Dreyer (11 points) and Janine Maser (7 points), all of whom often found themselves the victim of multiple CK defenders as they tried to handle the ball for the Stanners.”Our Achilles heel was the point guard position,” Molloy coach Marty Towey said. “It took a while to develop someone to replace (Gold-Onwude)…We have a JV team that won the Brooklyn-Queens championship, and we have some ball handlers coming up.”The loss ended the season for Molloy, which needed to win in order to attend the state CHSAA playoffs as the league's Class AA representative. Towey, however, was satisfied with having reached the Diocesan title game.”We were hoping for anything,” he said, “and we got here.”Reach contributing writer Christine Sampson by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
