Royals’ Rebuttal

All it took was a little over one quarter of crisp and intense basketball for Christ the King to silence the whispers that had been slowly growing for months.
In a much-anticipated showdown with Mary Louis - each team entered play with one league loss - that is likely to decide the CHSAA’s Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan regular season crown, the Royals put to rest their doubters in less than an hour.
Halfway through the second quarter of a game that had been moved to St. John’s University to accommodate fans from each side, the Royals led 34-7. The final score would be more respectable, 66-55, but it was nevertheless a resounding showing from the Royals, who dropped their first league game in eight years the week before.
It was, briefly, everything the Middle Village school has come to expect from the girls basketball team. They finished with a flourish in the paint, guarded tenaciously and hit the boards with voracity. The Royals pressed Mary Louis into mistakes, limiting St. John’s-bound forward Amanda Burakoski to eight points, and turning almost every mistake into points.
“The team in the first quarter is the team I expect to be out there, and I expect to be there the rest of the season,” CK Coach Bob Mackey said. “That’s the team I know we are.”
It was also the result, some of his players said, of a wakeup call. The 108-game league-winning streak -which was snapped by Archbishop Molloy in overtime - dated back to January of 2000. Mackey downplayed its result, citing other non-league overtime losses as equal in significance. His players felt differently.
“I was crushed,” freshman Bria Smith said.
The Royals’ play backed that up. The victory over Mary Louis was a statement, they said. Smith, their leading scorer, remained consistent, scoring a team-high 21 points. Her supporting cast - particularly juniors Geleisa George and Tahira Johnson and senior point guard Jael Pena - overwhelmed the Hilltoppers on each end of the floor.
The 6-foot-3 Johnson found holes in the Mary Louis zone and scored off loose balls. When Smith was planted on the bench with four fouls, George looked for her shot. And Pena, one of a precious few seniors who sees extended minutes, a player Mackey calls “the key,” sliced through the top of the Hilltoppers’ defense, either scoring herself or finding open teammates.
As for those who questioned them, and still do, Pena is confident the Royals, even if they are just 10-11 overall - unheard of for a program used to compiling undefeated seasons — will be the ones laughing at the end of March. She likes to hear their string of success will end.
“When we win the State Federation [Class AA crown] - which we are going to do - it will prove everybody wrong,” she said.