CK Boys Win Holiday Tournament
Christ the King won the 34th annual GlaxoSmithKline Holiday Invitational Tournament, held at N.C. State’s Reynolds Coliseum (Raleigh, NC), beating Kinston (from eastern North Carolina), 55-37, in the finals last Thursday.
Senior forward Rob Hampton led the charge with 18 points and seven rebounds and the N.C. State-bound senior guard Larry Davis, playing in front of his future fans, scored 14 points. Junior Malik Boothe played great defense all tournament-long, and added eight points and four assists in the championship game.
“Malik was really as good a player as we had down there,” said Christ the King Coach Bob Oliva. “They didn’t recognize the fact he was such a good defender.”
In the opener, the Royals topped Broughton (Raleigh, NC), 59-45, behind Davis’s 23 points, nine rebounds and four assists. CK (6-0) topped St. John’s (Washington, D.C.) in the semifinals, 47-43, as sophomore Erving Walker scored 17 points. Davis, named the tournament’s MVP, added a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Hampton chipped in with 14 points.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Oliva. “And winning is always good, too. … This gives us a lot of confidence.”
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Fresh off their second consecutive Nike Tournament of Champions title in Phoenix (AZ) last week, the Christ the King girls returned home. If the Royals were suffering from any jet lag, they didn’t show it.
CK routed Hidden Valley (VA), 76-47, Wednesday afternoon, in their final game of 2006, earning their 35th straight win. The game was closer than expected.
The Virginia State runner-up a year ago, Hidden Valley (3-5) led 25-23 in the opening half and trailed by just 36-27 at intermission. But a 12-1 third-quarter run, capped by a Lorin Dixon lay-up, put the Royals up 18. CK outscored Hidden Valley 24-10 in the decisive quarter and led 60-37 entering the final quarter.
Tina Charles led the Royals (8-0, 2-0 CHSAA I) with 29 points and 14 rebounds, Sky Lindsay added 19 points and seven rebounds, and Dixon chipped in with 11.
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Molloy beat Ursuline of New Rochelle, 67-31, in the Slam Dunk Challenge at the Westchester County Center. MVP Irene Rynasewycz scored a team-high 15 points. Molloy is now 6-1 overall and 1-0 in the CHSAA I.
– Zachary Braziller
