Christ the King wins 23rd title

When Lorin Dixon looked up at the scoreboard, she did not like what she saw. Christ the King was trailing by eight points more than halfway through the fourth quarter of their CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens final.
Instead of wilting under the pressure, she put it all on her slight shoulders - the deficit, the winning tradition, and the streak - willing the Royals to their 23rd straight Diocesan crown over Mary Louis, 54-50, Sunday afternoon in Middle Village.
“It’s very important,” she said of the run of titles. “It started at Christ the King and we want to keep it here as long as we can. You just don’t want to be that team to lose that game.”
Because of the 5-foot-4, UConn-bound lead guard, they did not. Dixon, who scored a game-high 27 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had six steals, sparked the game-turning 14-1 run, scoring 12 of CK’s final 16 points. Dixon’s six straight points, including a highlight-reel coast-to-coast 3-point play with a half-minute remaining, put the Royals (22-3) up 52-47.
“She decided it was time to pick it up, and she got that look and went,” Coach Bob Mackey said.
Without leading scorer Sky Lindsay, a St. John’s recruit, Dixon had no choice. She did have some help; sophomore Gelissa George added seven points, including a critical 3-point play in the run, and senior Nicole Caldera scored nine. “The whole team decided they were going to step up with me,” she said.
“What really was enlightening was the ability of the sophomores,” said Mackey, who also singled out the play of pivot Bianca Martinez. “The young kids stepped up. Basketball is a team sport. The nice part is in a team sport, people step up and that’s what happened.”
As one challenge is met, however, another arrives. The Royals meet stocked St. Michael Academy in a CHSAA AA state semifinal this week. With Lindsay’s availability unlikely, they may find themselves trailing late once again.
“We have to come out and hustle we like we did at the end of this game the whole time we play St. Mike’s,” she said. “We have to give it our all, ‘cuz nobody’s expecting us to win - but we’re going to pull it out.”
Mary Louis (21-7), meanwhile, nearly pulled off the unthinkable - stopping CK’s unparalleled stretch of league dominance - behind 25 points from sophomore Amanda Burakoski and Casey Shevlin’s 12. Despite the late collapse, the Hilltoppers, who enter the CHSAA A state playoffs this week against Long Island representative Sacred Heart, were not too disappointed afterwards, calling the showdown a “no-lose situation.”
“I’m really proud of my girls,” Shevlin said. “We played as hard as we did all year.”