By Joseph Staszewski
Christ the King gets a chance to defend its diocesan title, but that doesn’t mean it was happy with how it was earned.
A sloppy and unfocused Royals team survived a major scare from fourth-seeded Mary Louis. Top-seeded CK held on in the closing seconds for a 61-59 victory in the CHSAA Brooklyn-Queens Division I girls’ basketball semifinals at St. Francis Prep on Thursday night. Defending champion Christ the King faces No. 3 Archbishop Molloy 6 p.m. Sunday in the final.
“Hopefully this was the worst case scenario and we are able to move on,” junior wing Kaela Kinder said. “But this game was horrible.”
Christ the King (17-7) beat Mary Louis twice during the regular season in convincing fashion. The most recent was a 64-51 victory at Nike Zoom City on Feb. 15. CK coach Bob Mackey felt his team wasn’t focused this week at practice and told his team there can’t be any let downs this time of year.
“That was pretty much the post game speech,” he said. “You got to bring it and you got to bring it all the time.”
The Royals appeared to finally be control of the game after a layup by Kinder put them up 55-44 with 5:25 to go in the contest. Instead CK reverted back to the disjoined play that saw it trailing most of the first half. Mary Louis slowly crept back into the game and was down just 57-53 after a three-point play by Jasmine Brunson with 2:31 remaining in the game.
“Very careless,” Mackey said. “I didn’t like the we handed the ball at all. I thought our ball management was really not where it needs to be.”
Mary Louis didn’t seize the opportunity its defense provided for it. The young Hilltoppers, who will lose just one starter to graduation, missed layups and free throws down the stretch which would have swung the game in its direction. The Hilltoppers shot 14 of 26 from the free throw line for the contest.
“I’m not doing to sleep tonight because all I am going to see in the free throw line,” TMLA coach JoAnn Arbitello-Pinnock said. “Free throws have hurt us. Missed layups have hurt us. “
Mary Louis freshman Vanerlie Valcourt, who scored 10 points of her 12 points in the fourth, hit a layup with two seconds remaining in the game to make it 61-59. Christ the King missed the first free throw after being fouled. Kinder grabbed the rebound as time ran out. Senior Kadijah Dickson scored 16 points for Mary Louis and Jasmine Brunson tallied 10.
The Hilltoppers led by as many as seven in the first half and were ahead 34-33 at the break. Zambrotta picked up her game in the third quarter and her teammates played better around her. The junior guard scored nine of her 19 points in the frame and CK went up 47-38 on her three with 1:51 to go in the period. Kinder scored 15 points and Dominique Toussaint added 12. Raven Dowling also gave Christ the King good minutes on both sides of the ball.
The Royals know its play needs to be more cohesive if it is going to bring home the crown.
“The way we played today, we shouldn’t have played like that against this type of competition and the stage that we are in,” Zambrotta said. “We have to step it up.”
