Ray’s 40 Points Overwhelm Mary Louis

Point guard Casey Shevlin best epitomizes Mary Louis. The talent, the ability, the athleticism, it’s all there. But her mental makeup, like that of her teammates, is what frustrates Coach Joe Lewinger to no end.
“She has a little Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde about her,” said Lewinger. “A point guard is not just a passer. A point guard is not just a shooter. You have to learn how to do both.”
Shevlin, the Hilltoppers’ junior playmaker, saved her best for last. But it wasn’t enough as Aquinas High School of the Bronx topped Mary Louis, 72-62, behind Judith Ray’s 40 points last Wednesday afternoon at Christ the King in the Brooklyn/Queens Archdiocese Challenge.
In the final quarter, with Mary Louis trailing by double digits, Shevlin began penetrating every time down the court, making steals, finding open teammates.
In one sequence, Shevlin went coast-to-coast for a lay-up, set up Julia Serewko for a basket before twice feeding an open Tiffanie Carman after splitting the defense.
Although Carman’s last bucket sliced the Hilltopper deficit to five, Aquinas quickly responded with seven unanswered points (four from Ray) to put the game out of reach.
Whereas Ray, the younger sister of Allan, the All-American guard at Villanova, imprinted her will from the opening tap, Shevlin was Mary Louis’s second-best player for much of the afternoon (Maral Javadifar scored a team-high 18 points).
“I really think she was the most talented person on the court,” said Lewinger. “But she has to believe that.”
For Aquinas, the Rutgers-bound guard Ray, surely did. In addition to her 40 points, Ray added 10 rebounds, six assists and five steals.
“She’s just a phenomenal player,” said Aquinas Coach Socorro Santos-Winters. “She can play any position. … She makes everyone around her better.”
Taking advantage of the smallish Hilltopper guards, Ray dribbled into the paint and continually shot over the top of them.
“When I have a mismatch, I always try to exploit it,” she said. “Most of the teams we play, I have an advantage on the guards” with height and power.
While Lewinger admitted the size differential was a factor, he was still just as disappointed with his team’s play. Although smaller in stature, the Mary Louis guards possessed a significant edge in speed and quickness, yet didn’t take away any of Ray’s forays to the basket by standing their ground or ball denial.
“Any time you can get a girl that can score that much, you have to take away what she’s comfortable with,” he said. “You have to do something before she catches the ball or after she catches the ball.”
Mary Louis (5-4, 0-2 CHSAA I) did neither. Javadifar said the plan was to trap Ray, to give help. But even when help arrived, Ray found open teammates.
“We were slacking off,” she admitted. “The problem is we have to start playing from the beginning. It was frustrating. We tried to keep up with her.”