By Marc Raimondi
All season, the Holy Cross basketball team has depended on the scoring of Sylven Landesberg.
The sophomore, in his first year on the varsity, has scored over 20 points per game – an average good enough to lead the team and the league.
But Landesberg, after getting 10 points in the first quarter, failed to score in the second and third quarters against Bishop Loughlin Wednesday in the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens 'AA' semifinals at Bishop Ford High School.
So the Knights were forced to use another option.
“There's only so much you can ask a sophomore to do,” Holy Cross coach Paul Gilvary said.
And it was only fitting for the young team with nine sophomores and juniors to have a senior step up.
Lawrence Jolicoeur took on the scoring load in the middle of the game, scoring 10 of his 16 points in the second and third quarters to help the Knights beat the Lions, 62-53, and advance to the final Friday night against Christ the King.
“It was almost a relief,” Jolicoeur said. “Now's the best time to play well.”
The lanky 6-foot-9, 185-pound starting center with raw talent was an enigma for Gilvary and the Holy Cross staff for three years.
“We did everything to him,” the coach said. “We yelled at him, we were nice to him.”
But it never clicked until a game in December against St. Anthony's where Jolicoeur felt he got pushed around way too much down low. There was only one solution in Jolicoeur's mind: hit the weights. Hard. He went from working out once a week to every day. The difference was crystal clear against Loughlin.
“We got him a floor plan of the school and showed him where the weight room is,” Gilvary joked.
Good thing. Jolicoeur was the only resistance Holy Cross (14-11) had before the fourth quarter, where Landesberg scored 10 more points to give him 20 on the game.
It didn't stop Loughlin (14-12) from coming back though, after being down by as much as 45-32 with 7:24 left in the game. The Lions got it to within 54-50 after two missed free throws by Landesberg with less than two minutes to go and forward Devin Ebanks was dominant in the second half. The 6-foot-8 forward, who has gotten a look from St. John's and Louisville, had 17 of his 23 points after the break.
Still, by hitting free throws down the stretch, the Knights held on – something Gilvary and Jolicoeur agreed might not have happened earlier in the season.
“It would've been a close game,” said Jolicoeur, who has interest from Fairfield University. “But we would've lost.”
Added Gilvary: “We kind of got that deer-in-the headlights look sometimes.”
The only look tonight will be toward Friday night's final.
Christ the King 80, Archbishop Molloy 63. Despite a remarkable long-distance display by Milan Prodanovic (six three-pointers) and Rocco Rubino (four), Molloy's defense was unable to contain Christ the King Wednesday night in the other semifinal at Bishop Ford.
The Royals offense dominated throughout, but Prodonavic had 15 of his 20 points in the second half and the Stanners got within 67-57 on a Rubino (17 points) trey with 4:19 to go in the game.
Two straight three-point plays by CK junior forward Andrew Gabriel iced it with 90 seconds left. Erving Walker (17), N.C. State-bound Larry Davis (17) and Rob Hampton (13) led Christ the King.
