St. Ray’s depth too much for Holy Cross

Holy Cross entered their marquee matchup with St. Raymond’s knowing any of the Ravens’ big three of Kevin Parrom, Omari Lawrence and Daryl “Truck” Bryant could beat them.
“It’s almost like you pick your poison,” Cross Coach Paul Gilvary said.
The Knights did a fine job on Lawrence and Bryant, limiting them to a combined 26 points. They were, however, unable to contain Parrom, the 6-foot-5 swingman, who shredded them for 17 points, 12 in the second half, in St. Ray’s 79-69 triumph in the South Bronx Sunday afternoon.
“Anybody can go off for them,” Cross senior Sylven Landesberg said. “That just shows you they’re that good of a team.”
Just as important, Parrom also drew the fourth foul on Landesberg with 2:05 remaining in the third quarter and the Ravens in the midst of a momentum-changing 8-0 run. Landesberg would go to the bench for the rest of the period. Cross never get closer than five points the rest of the way.
Each time they did cut into the lead, Parrom scored or found junior center Delroy Daley, another role player who finished with 17 points, for easy baskets.
So despite Landesberg finishing with a game-high 25, senior forward Tim Beinert adding 21 and senior guard Blaise Ffrench coming on late with 11, it was a disappointing afternoon.
“We just couldn’t get enough stops, especially in the fourth quarter, to get on any kind of run of our own,” Gilvary said. “They just executed better than we did and shot better than we did.”
At halftime, Cross (9-2, 1-1) was hanging right with the high-powered Ravens, leading 39-37 thanks to 17 first-half points from Beinert, including three 3-pointers. Only St. Ray’s kept coming, throwing several mini-runs at them.
“We didn’t come out with the same fire we came out with in the first half,” Landesberg said. “There’s no excuse. We didn’t come out and play our game.”
It was surprising, considering this should’ve been a revenge game for Cross. Each of the last two years, St. Ray’s (12-1, 5-0) had ended their season. Last March, the Ravens came back from 20 points behind in the intersectional semifinals.
“I don’t know what happened,” Beinert said. “We were ready, we played hard. But we’ll definitely get them back next time.”