By Joseph Staszewski
ALBANY — Andre Walker spent most of the season letting Christ the King stars Rawle Alkins, Adonis Delarosa and Travis Atson lead the team to victories. But the senior point guard knew he couldn’t stay in the background any longer with all three coming up short in the Royals’ biggest game of the season.
“I have teammates that click most of the time,” Walker said. “But I saw them struggling, so I had to do something.”
What he did was score 13 of his game-high 25 points in the third quarter to help lead the Royals to a come-from-behind 58-52 victory over Long Island Lutheran in the state Federation Class AA boys’ basketball final at the Times Union Center in Albany Saturday night.
It was Christ the King’s second-straight crown, third in the last five years and fourth in the school’s history. The Royals, who rallied from a 14-point second quarter deficit, beat LuHi in last year’s title game and also came back from being down 17 points to win against the Crusaders in the final of the Stop-DWI Holiday Classic Dec. 30.
“I told you last game, you don’t want to go out with a loss,” said Walker, who earned MVP honors. “I can tell this five years from now, 10 years from now. I have a lot of buddies on [Long Island Lutheran], so I’m going to give them two weeks off and then I’m going to brag.”
Walker, who came into the game without a college scholarship offer, wasn’t the only senior who stepped up big. Classmate Bryler Paige and Delarosa did the same.
Paige tallied 10 points and came up with a steal that led to CK grabbing its first lead at 49-48 on two Alkins free throws with 4:31 left in the fourth quarter. Delarosa scored six points and grabbed 13 rebounds. His two-handed slam of an Alkins miss capped an 11-2 Christ the King run in the fourth quarter and put his team up 55-51 with 1:45 to go in the game.
“All three of us stepped up and I think that’s why we got the W,” Delarosa said.
Chris Atkinson led LuHi with 16 points and Devonte Green, playing on an injured ankle, tallied 10 points and eight rebounds. The Crusaders (22-5) got as close as 55-52 with 21.8 seconds remaining, but Paige and Walker combined to make three of four free throws to seal the victory. The two combined to shoot 15-for-17 from the foul line during the game.
The Royals (25-6) got off to an excruciatingly slow start and trailed 12-4 after the first quarter. Walker then felt it was his time in the third quarter to step up with the usual catalysts struggling to score. He got to the basket at will and buried two three-pointers. He hit another trey early in the fourth.
“Andre Walker saved his best for last and probably earned himself a couple of scholarship offers tonight,” Royals Coach Joe Arbitello said.
The game was another example of Christ the King being able to find a way to win a close game late in the contest. It did so against Cardinal Hayes in the CHSAA intersectional semifinal, the title game against Bishop Loughlin and again in a 54-51 win over Benjamin Cardozo in the state Federation semifinal last Friday.
The Judges led by five points with 3:01 remaining in the game only to see the Royals scratch out a victory. LuHi also could not hold its lead and prevent Christ the King from collecting the championship hardware.
“That’s all I wanted this year,” Paige said. “I was able to get it. It feels amazing.”
