By Marc Raimondi
“At one point, we were just a stop over to their next opponent,” Lewinger said.But not any longer. Christ the King senior point guard Lorin Dixon called Mary Louis the best league competition the Royals have faced in her four years at the Middle Village school. “They're not afraid of you,” said Dixon, headed to UConn next year. “A lot of opponents are like that.”That's because Christ the King, coming off a 53-game winning streak, is unofficially the defending two-time national champion in girls' basketball. Mary Louis has been a solid team on the local level in recent years, but never before have the Hilltoppers come this close to beating the Royals.”It's a building program,” senior Casey Shevlin said. “We've come a long, long way.”Down 16 points with 4:58 left after a Sky Lindsay (9 points) basket, Mary Louis (8-1, 1-1 CHSAA) stormed back with a 9-0 run capped by a pair of Shevlin free throws to make it 58-51 less than two minutes later. But the Hilltoppers' legs were gone by that time and they didn't have enough left to pull off the biggest upset in the history of the school.”I'm all for moral victories against King,” Shevlin said. “But we'd like to take one.”The battle of point guards was perhaps the most intriguing. Dixon and Shevlin, teammates with the AAU Liberty Belles, both finished with 21 points apiece and had to take the offensive initiative, even though both would rather pass than shoot. Mary Louis sophomore Amanda Burakoski, a star in the making, was held to only six points and senior Maral Javadifar had only two before both fouled out in the fourth quarter. Christ the King senior forward Sky Lindsay, St. John's bound, was the focal point of the Hilltoppers' defense and managed only nine points.”Sky got banged around a lot,” Royals coach Bob Mackey said. “I think they really tried to push her around….I think they keyed on her, I think it was one of their goals to shut her down and I think they did a good job.”Christ the King (7-3, 1-0) did stop Shevlin, who hit a three to tie the game at 25 with 3:42 left before halftime, in the third quarter. And stopping Shevlin means stopping Mary Louis. The Hilltoppers had only two field goals in the third as the Royals took a 48-37 lead.”Casey's the heart and soul of their team,” Mackey said. “As she goes, they go.”The same goes for Dixon and Christ the King, but the 5-foot-3 sparkplug, who also had seven rebounds, had help. Junior guard Jael Pena had 13 points and eight rebounds and sophomore forward Tahira Johnson had 10 points and 13 rebounds.The close margin of victory makes the Jan. 30 match-up between the two teams at Christ the King even more interesting. Lewinger hopes there's a third meeting, too.”This is not our sole purpose of the season,” the coach said. “This is not the season right here. Our plan is to play them two more times – once at their place, once in the finals.”Reach reporter Marc Raimondi by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 130.
