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November/December, January Reports

2000-01 Season Reports

4/17
Wheel Chair Classic @ St. John's Universite
Bronx 116 vs. Queens 94

I made a trip to St. John's yesterday to see the Wheel Chair Classic. The first game was the Bronx against Queens. Because Wendell Gibson was away in France and didn't get back until 5pm yesterday he didn't play on the Queens team. And it would turn out that they needed him bad, as they lost 116-94. But Showtime Hill had the best individual game scoring over 20 points on a number of 3 point bombs. At the end of the first quarter he hit one from 27 feet that touched nothing but net. Ryan Williams put on an aerial show, putting in dunk after dunk. He showed he is jumpshot isn't totally non-existant as he hit his only 3 point attempt. On the Bronx side Julius Hodge, Ben Gordon, Allan Ray and Donnie McGrath all played well. Hodge played very unslefish and scored about 17 points. Gordon, who at first wasn't going to play had a few dunks of his own. The two players who made a name for themselves were Allan Ray and Donnie McGrath. Not many people had seen McGrath before yesterday because he plays up in Westchester but they know him now. McGrath showed he can shoot off the dribble and break his man down and get to the basket. Ray showed off his jumpshot and showed off his hops as he caught an alley-oop from McGrath.

Manhattan-W vs. Brooklyn-L
In the other game Manhattan played Brooklyn. This game looked like a total mismatch as Brooklyn had a full team, minus Curtis Sumpter, because his coach wanted 3 seniors from Loughlin on the team, Ted Munford, Timeke Mitchell and Lawrence Peterson. Manhattan played with just 10 people and 3 of them never played high school ball in Manhattan, Wendell Gibson, Ricky Soliver and Marvin McCullough. The bench for this team was not one that an all-star team should have. I left this game at half time as Manhattan led 39-38. I figured Brooklyn would come back and blow Manhattan out, but somehow Manhattan hung on to win behind Lenny Cooke. That sets up the championship between the Bronx and Manhattan on Thursday at 8:30pm. If Manhattan has the same team its going to be a blowout but I expect that some of the kids that had jet lag from the trip to France will play on Thursday for the Manhattan team. Two key players are Jason Wingate and Keydren Clark.
4/7
Wendy's Shootout @ Depaul

New York City 93 vs. Chicago 104

Originally I was going to go check out my lil man Jarrell Mills play against his school teammate and ex-AAU teammate Terrell Elliston but then I remembered today was the Wendy's Shootout so I had to stay home to watch that. The game was very entertaining especially on the Chicago side. But the early portion of the game belonged to the NYC team as they jumped out to a 17-8 lead but Chicago would respond and took a 29-28 lead. The rest of the half would go back and forth, because of the play of Will "The Thrill" Bynum who gave Showtime Hill a taste of what earned Darryl his name. But unfortunately Showtime never got a clear out to show how we do things in NYC. Wendell Gibson kept NYC in the game wiht his inside play. The Chicago team ended the half on a 8-0 run to take a 6 point lead into the half. Team Chicago started the second half on a 10-0 run which put the game away as they took a 16 point lead. From that point on we just saw showtime from the boys from Chi-Town. PG Jason Straight showed off the handle as he did the "monkey" for those of you that don't know what that is it's when you fall to the floor and spin on the floor, get up dribbling the whole time. The other play was when he bounced the ball and it bounced twice and on the second bounce it somehow went behind his back without him touching it. But the highlight of the game came from Luther Head. Head had a clearout on Kenny Adelake when at the 3-point line, when he looked like he was going to cross over but instead he threw the ball off the backboard ran around Adelake and caught the ball with one hand, and almost lost it but he regained control with two hands and pulled the ball to the back of his neck and threw it very hard. That play left me with a smile on my face and had the crowd at DePaul buzzing through a TV timeout. One announcer called it the best move he ever saw in a game, I've seen Rucker star "Headache" play in person so of course he has the best move I've ever seen. I'm going to describe the play that Headache did; It was an all-star game in Parkchester where Headache lives, so of course he had to put on a show for the hometown fans. This was a few years ago so I don't remember every detail, but he was being pressed by one person and the defender didn't have his shirt tucked in so headache grabbed his shirt, and pulled it over his head and then ran around him and hit someone of with a pretty dime. Oh yea for the Wendy's Shootout the final score was 104-93, the kids from Chicago won and took a 2-1 lead in this series. But next year I feel with all the talent in the city in the class of 2002 there is no way they will lose. Rashad Bell didn't show the type of player he really is but did manage 13 points. Kenney Adelake despite being headed for DePaul and the game being played at DePaul he didn't get any love from the crowd, on one play he got the ball on the break and simply laid it in and got booed.

Totals: Adelake-24 points, 9 rebounds, Bell-13 points 6 rebounds, Dantzler-3 points, Duren-4 points, 3 rebounds, Gibson-13 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, Goode-3 points 3 assists, Hill-9 points, 4 assists, McRae-7 points, 3 rebounds, Miller-2 points, Munford-7 points, 4 assists, Njoya-8 points, 5 rebounds
3/14
CHSAA City Championship
Molloy 56 vs. St. Raymond 60 (2ot)
    The game got off to a quick start with the score 5-4 St. Ray's lead with just over a minute into the 1st quarter. But after that both teams went cold from the outside. The Ravens shot just 1-7 from behind the arc in the first quarter. Molloy would take advantage of that poor shooting and take an 11-10 lead into the 2nd quarter. The Stanners would continue to build on the lead behind a great first half from 6'8 C Wendell Gibson who scored 13 of his teams 24 1st half points to help Molloy to a 24-18 first half lead. On the other side 6'7 SF Julius Hodge scored just 2 points in the first half. THe 3rd quarter went Molloy's way as they maintained their lead, but because of great play from 6'4 C Chris McRae (15 points 12 rebounds) the Ravens were able to keep Molloy in striking distance. By the end of the 3rd quarter Molloy led 35-30. The 3rd quarter started with an Andrew Jarvis free throw (3 points 7 rebounds) which would ignite the Ravens, or should I say 6'1 SG Allan Ray. Ray would score St. Ray's next 9 points which ended on a 3 that put St. Ray's up 40-37 which was thier biggest lead since leading 10-7 in the first quarter. On the inbounds pass following that 3 6'0 SG Anthony Epps stole the ball and handed it off to McRae who laid it in to push the Ravens ahead 42-37. But there would be no quit in the Stanners as 5'11 PG Thomas Harrison (10 points 5 assists) knocked down a 3 to pull Molloy to within 2. After 2 free throws by Allan Ray 5'9 shooter John Maser (14 points) would hit a 3 to make the score 44-43 in favor of the Ravens. After a pair of Julius Hodge (14 points 8 rebounds) free throws St. Ray's would lead 48-35 with 29 seconds left. Molloy would get the ball and work it around to 6'4 SF John Sikiric who hit the 3 to tie it up. Hodge would get a chance to be the hero but he came up short on his shot right before the buzzer.
    The overtime started with a Wendell Gibson (17 points 13 rebounds) layup, which was answered by a bank shot by Julius Hodge. Gibson who was in foul trouble the whole second half was called for a charging foul with just under 3 minutes left in the overtime the foul was his 5th and he would have to sit and hope his team could pull out the victory. With under a minute left and Molloy leading 53-51 6'1 SF Tariq Atkins was put on the line. The sophomore would calmly hith them both which as a result sent the game to another overtime period but not before St. Ray's workhorse Chris McRae fouled out. Molloy would open up a 56-55 lead but then came the heroics of the All-American Julius Hodge. Hodge would 4 straight free throws with less then a minute to go in the 2nd overtime to give the Ravesn a 3 point lead. After Molloy could not score Allan Ray was sent to the line with 7 seconds left. Ray would hit 1 of 2 to ice the game and the celebration was on. Hodge who shot just 4-20 from the field and 0-10 from 3-point range came up big in the clutch as he hit 6-6 from the line all in the closing seconds of the 4th quarter and in the 2nd overtime. Allan Ray finished the game with 17 and was named the Tournament MVP, teammate Chris McRae was named to the All-Tournament Team. For Molloy Wendell Gibson was named to the All-Tournament Team. Before the game Hodge told me that he didn't care if he scored 1 point as long as they won he would be the happiest person in the world, and those words could be no truer as you could see how happy he and his teammates were after the game. Now St. Ray's will advance to play St. Mary for the state catholic school championship on Sunday at 4pm at Fordham University. This is the 4th straight year a team from the Bronx/Manhattan division has won the CHSAA title, St. Ray's the last 2 and Rice the 2 before. And with Next year the 3 favorites possibly being from the Bronx/Manhattan division the Brooklyn/Queens division may go into a title drought.
For St. Raymond this their second basketbally title this year as the Ravens Varsity 'B' team won the championship in that division with 6'1 SF William Henderson being the named the Tournament MVP an 6'0 SG Shalah Mapp earning All-Tournament honors.
3/11
CHSAA Playoffs
St. Raymond vs. Xaverian
    Sunday I was at Fordham to check out the CHSAA semifinals (really the quarterfinals). In a rematch of last year semifinals St. Ray's and Xaverian played but inlike last year nobody was expecting a 41 point blowout as was the case last year. Xaverian is a much better team then last year and the major reason is Chris Taft, now to the game. St. Raymond jumped out early to a 17-11 first quarter lead over Xaverian with 13 coming from Allan Ray, unfortunately I arrived late because I was caught up watching Duke smack North Carolina. St. Ray's kept it up in the second quarter behind Chris McRae who dominated the boards and scored about 8 in the quarter. St. Ray's led 34-26 at the end of the first half. That was very encouraging as Julius Hodge was saddled with foul trouble and would only scored 8 points for the game but would grab 12 boards. In the second half St. Ray's opened up a 11 point lead only to see Xaverian come back to make it a 4 point game behind 6-8 sophomore Chris Taft (19 points but just 4 boards). But Xaverian could get no closer. The game ended on a Chris McRae fast break dunk to end the game with an exclamation. McRae finished the game with 17 points and 14 rebounds, while Allan Ray was the star for the Ravens as he put up a career high 24 points and also grabbed 6 boards. Fordham U. has not Julius Hodge's favorite place to play as in his 4 games when he was a focal point of the offense he has scored 7 points, 27 points, 14 points and 8 points. Of course that 27 point game was in the championship game last year against Rice where he earned MVP. He is hoping to have another big game in the CHSAA championship. But in order to really repeat this he will have to lead his team to face St. Mary for the real CHSAA championship.
Holy Cross vs. Molloy
    In what I am calling the other quarterfinal Molloy took on Holy Cross. Molloy jumped out quickly to a 16-9 lead and looked like they would run away with this one, but they were outscored 17-7 the rest of the half. The second half of this game belonged to Molloy's John Maser. The 5'10 shooter drilled 4 3's and completely turned the game around, he finished with 18 points. Wendell Gibson also established himself in the second half finishing the game with 19 points and grabbing 11 boards. John Sikiric also played good scoring 12 points and 5 assists. On the Holy Cross side Joe Marino finished his career with 18 points. Molloy now faces St. Ray's for the New York City CHSAA championship. Molloy is playing as well as anybody in the city right now, with their 3 playoff wins coming by a total of 50 points. Of course the 32 point win over LaSalle makes that number look a lot better but when u think that they beat All Hallows who was red hot by 9 and a tough Holy Cross team by 9 you see that the Stanners are hot. In the regular season matchup St. Ray's defeated Molloy 78-65, but a large reason to that win was Wendell Gibson's refusal to play in the second half and after that he didn't play in the next two games and skipped a practice. But now he looks focused as ever and will be ready for the Ravens.
3/4
CHSAA Intersectional Playoffs
Bishop Loughlin vs. St. Peter
    This game started off totally different then I expected as St. Peter looked like they would run away with this game leading by 15 during the second quarter and holding a 9 point lead at the half. 6'2 SG Keith Letendre scored 11 points in the first half and his teammate 5'9 PG John Baiano scored 7 for St. Peter to give them control of the game. To start the 3rd quarter St. Peter went up 50-38, but then 6'6 SF Curtis Sumpter would take over going on a personal 9-0 run and scoring the first 11 of a 16-1 run for Loughlin which was capped by a Ted Munford 3 pointer which gave Loughlin it's first lead since the score was 2-0. Then Sumpter would get his 4th foul on a bad call where got all ball on a block, Sumpter would have to go to the bench, with Loughlin up 6. But St. Peter could not capitalize as the 5'11 PG Ted Munford just took over, as he scored on his own and gave it up to his teammates, scoring 24 points dropping 11 dimes and grabbing 6 boards. The recipient of many of Munford's passes was 6'2 SF Timeke "Tubbs" Mitchell who finished the game with 20 points and 8 boards. Sumpter finished with 16 points. The final score did not indicate how good of a game it was as the final score was 84-70. Loughlin will now play Xaverian in the quarterfinals.
Molloy vs. LaSalle
    I knew before this game started that it would be a blowout but I was hoping I was wrong and it would be a good game, but that was not the case. Molloy jumped out to a 14-0 nothing lead, which at this point I decided that I was going to go down the hill and get a slice. The score at the end of the 1st was 17-2. When I got back to the gym I thought the scoreboard said 35-2 but it was actually 35-12 (how much better is that?). The final score of this laugher was 74-42. John Sikiric scored 17, Wendell Gibson scored 13 and Marlon Smith scored 7 4th quarter points. LaSalle had 1 player in double digits and it was Eric Sterling who took 20 shots to get 10 points, and made just 4 of those 20 shots. Famous Brown scored 9 and looked disinterested the whole game, maybe if Lenny Cooke would've stayed people, like myself, would't be talking about how far he has fallen. Molloy now has a rematch with All Hallows in the quarters.
St. Francis Prep vs. Rice
    St. Francis Prep came out like a team on a mission scoring the first 7 points of the game but Rice would answer by scoring 22 of the next 28 points to take a 22-13 lead in to the second quarter. The scoring in the second quarter would pretty much see saw back and forth with 5'8 PG Keydren "Key-Key" Clark and 6'6 SF Rashad Bell trading shots. At the half Rice led 42-34. The third quarter would see Rice go on a 10-3 run which gave them a 52-37 lead, which seemingly put them in complete control of the game, but who knew they wouldn't hit a field goal for over 8 minutes? Prep took full advantage of this going on a 24-2 run which gave them a 61-54 lead. The two points by the Raiders were both on technical free throws, one by Clark and one by 6'0 PG Jason Wingate. With 5 minutes left in the game Rashad Bell fouled out with 28 points which gave the Raiders an oppurtunity to come back, but they could never take advantage of the oppurtunity and fell 70-63. 6'3 SG Kevin White chipped in with 24 for the Terriers. On the other side Clark led the way with 26 but the vast majority came in the first half, and nobody else scored in double digits as 6'1 SG Russell Robinson scored 9 and 7'2 C Shagari Alleyne scored 8.
3/3
St. Raymond vs. All Hallows
    I've spent this weekend watching some CHSAA playoff games. On Saturday I was up at Mount to see St. Raymond play All Hallows for the B/M #1 seed in the playoffs. St. Ray's jumped out to an early 22-13 lead but from that point on the game would be all Gaels as they went on a 21-6 run to end the half and never looked back. St. Ray's would get within at the start of second half but could never get the lead back, because of the great inside play from 6'8 C Kiril Wachsmann who had 19 points and 11 rebounds. 6'3 SG Ricky Soliver also played a great game scoring 18 but more importantly held 6'6 SG Julius Hodge to 14. St. Ray's goal was to finish the season 8-0, they got the first one a win over Rice but now they will have to settle for 7-1 if they want to bring home the state championship. All Hallows gets the #1 seed in the playoffs and will play Molloy in the quarterfinals because Molloy beat on LaSalle 74-42 on Sunday. St. Ray's has to settle for the #2 seed and a matchup against Christ the King who escaped McClancy 50-49 in overtime.
2/21
St. Raymond vs. St. Anthony (NJ)
    Today St. Raymond traveled to Jersey City to face St. Anthony in what would turn out to be a thriller. Because of I thought the game started at 7:30 and traffic I did not get to the game until the start of the 4th quarter where the score was 40-30 with St. Anthony in the lead. But St. Ray's would turn it on to start the quarter as 6'6 SG Julius Hodge scored back to back to buckets to ignite an 8-2 run which brought the Ravens to within 4. The Ravens would stay within striking distance behind 6'1 Allan Ray and 6'4 Chris McRae who scored 14 of St. Ray's last 16 points of the quarter. With the score 50-48 5'10 Donald Copeland was on the line with 13 seconds left, looking to extend the lead but he came up empty on both shots and the Ravens would clear the reboud. St. Ray's got the ball to McRae inside who would make the layup with 2 seconds left to tie it up at 50. On the insuing inbounds pass, 6'0 Dwayne Lee tried tried to make a full court pass which sailed out of bounds giving St. Ray's the ball under thier basket. Hodge inbounded the ball and threw a lob up to McRae who couldn't finish and the follow by Ray also didn't drop so overtime would decide this game. The overtime saw barely any offense with a layup by McRae and 2 free throws by St. Anthony would be the only offense with under a minute left. St. Anthony held the ball the entire minute and it came down to 6'0 Elijah Ingram one on one with Hodge, Ingram got to the basket but his shot went off the rim, and a point blank follow by a St. Anthony player would rattle out at the buzzer, so a second overtime would be needed. St. Anthony scored the first 3 points of the overtime, but it would be answered on a 3 pointer by Hodge. The rest of the overtime would be scoreless when St. Raymond had the ball with under a minute left. Of course they got the ball to their star, Hodge would begin his move to the basket with 6 seconds left as he went up he was undercut and sent to the line with 2 seconds left. Coach Bobby Hurley would try to ice Hodge by calling a timeout. But Hodge showed he cannot be iced as he made the first and intentionally missed the 2nd since the Friars had no timeouts reamaining, they would never get a shot off and St. Ray's won the game 56-55. Hodge finished with 21 points, McRae scored 15 and grabbed 10 boards, Ray scored 8 of his 10 in the 4th quarter come back. Ingram led St. Ant's with 16, 6'8 John Paul Kobryn scored 10 as did Donald Copeland. Lee scored just 7 points. Up next for the Friars is the #3 ranked team in the nation Camden led by the best player in the nation Dajuan Wagner. St. Ray's plays Rice next on Wednesday.
2/17
Rice vs. St. Raymond By Jamaul Joseph
Today was a triple-header at the Ravens Center with the freshman game being the first. I did not arrive until halftime and the score was 26-23 Rice. At the start of the third quarter Rice increased their lead to 30-23. The Ravens then went to their press and they decreased Rice's lead to a point. The Ravens then started to take over the game with tenacious defense. At the end of three quarters it was 38-35 Ravens. The Ravens center 6'3 Brian Laing did not have a good offensive day 8 points but did a hell of a job on the boards grabbing 18 rebounds. In the fourth the Ravens were able to hold off Rice behind their star 6'3 Gavin Grant (19 points 5-15 from the free throw line) who took over in the fourth quarter by hitting the defensive boards, pushing the rock, and just giving buckets. For Rice # 21 Mike Watson had 7. The final in this one was 49-45 The Ravens
At the beginning of the JV game St. Raymond's 6'3 SF Miguel Garcia came out firing for the Ravens hitting on his first three shots. For Rice # 10 Derrick Williams was filling it up from beyond the arc with three first half treys and finished with a total of six trey's for the game and 21 points. # 32 K. Gervais for Rice also added 21 points. The Ravens tried to keep it close and there were various lead changes in the first half but they were no match for Rice's JV as they took the contest 72-66.
It is now time for the main event!! The Varsity game!!! Today was senior day and some of the seniors honored were 6'6 North Carolina state bound guard Julius Hodge, 6'4 Hofstra signee Chris McRae who would have a hell of a game; other notables were 6'1 Anthony Epps and 6'4 Andrew Jarvis. I remember two to three seasons ago when there was a St. Raymond's vs. Rice contest the gym was packed and you would have to attend the JV game to get a seat and I was even discussing this situation with a Rice assistant, but attendance was decent and people who failed to attend missed a good one.
The first points of the game came from Julius Hodge with a trey and he finished with 19 points, 11 boards, and 6 assists. St. Ray's jumped out to an 8-2 lead with 4:40 left in the first and Rice burned its first timeout to regain their composure and add 6'1 PG Kenny Eusey to the lineup. Hodge had 2 treys in the run. With the addition of Eusey the team got jump started, they went on a 7-0 run capped off by a trey by # 3 Keydren Clarke (9 points). After a quarter of play the score was 19-16 St. Ray's. In the second period here came the Ravens clawing back and went an a 10-0 run ignited by 6'2 guard Allan Ray who looked like the major D-1 all the scouts predicted him to be with 8 points in the run and finished the contest with 13 points 3 boards. At half the score was 38-28 St Ray's.
At the start of the third the Raiders were on a surge with points coming from their phenomenal freshman 6'0 SG Russell Robinson who finished with 10 points 6 boards Christian Brown of Rice also added significant contributions in the game with a team high 15 points. At one point the Raiders had a lead of four but before the Ravens would succumb to defeat St. Ray's renaissance man Chris McRae would have something to say about it. He lead a charge to put the Ravens back up in front with an array of post moves on 7'2 Shagari Alleyne and he finished with a game high 23 points and 10 boards giving them the lead back at the end of three quarters at 52-48. In the fourth with Alleyne in the game Rice may have decreased their chances of winning. Alleyne who is a project and will be in the league in the future could not hold on to the rock and when he did catch the pill he could not convert on easy lay-ups. St. Ray's capitalized on these mistakes and went on a 13-3 run. The final score in this one was 77-58 with the Ravens locking up second place in the league behind All Hallows (16-3, 5-1). St Ray's is now 14-9.
2/9
Rice vs. All Hallows

    Of course two days after I put All Hallows should play their home games at Gauchos, they play their home game with Rice at the Gauchos. This wasn't good for me as I first went to All Hallows only to be told the game was at the Gauchos. By the time I got to the game it was 30-15 at half time in favor of the Gaels, and 6'1 SG Russell Robinson had a swollen eye suffered on an elbow from 6'3 SF Idiongo Okurro. So for the second straight time All Hallows doubled up Rice in the first half, in the first game they led 40-20. But this time it was even more amazing considering All Hallows was playing without 6'1 SG Bobby Santiago (Ankle) and 5'10 PG James Brown (declared academically ineligible). All Hallows started the second half with back to back baskets to extend the the lead to 19. But Rice would not fold as they battled back behind 6'1 SG Kenny Eusey and Robinson to bring the game to 40-32 about 30 seconds into the 4th quarter. But Rice could get no closer as All Hallows was constantly put on the free throw line and mad free throw after free throw. The final score of the game was 61-50 (not 61-41 as reported in the Daily News). With the win All Hallows clinched first place in the Bronx/Manhattan division sectional playoffs. Rice will now have to beat arch rival St. Ray's to continue their string of 1st or second place finishes in the Arch Diocese of New York.
    The JV game was over as soon as the game started as All Hallows jumped out to a 9-0 lead, behind 6'2 SG Luis Nieves and 6'0 PG Ronald Ramon. The game would never be close and the Gaels regrouped from their first loss of the year to St. Raymond to win another game by a score of 68-50.
2/7
St. Raymond vs. All Hallows

    I didn't get into the game until halftime because I was told the game was sold out and no one would be let in. But then I just decided to walk in and see what would happen, and of course they were allowing people in. So anyway when I got there the score was 38-31 with St. Raymond leading. Near the end of halftime I see someone carry out 6'1 SG Bobby Santiago, who was accidentally elbowed in a scrammble for a loose ball in the first quarter. He was hurt bad enough to keep him out of the rest of the game, and I'm not sure if he will play against Rice on Friday.
    The Ravens started the second half by extending the lead to 52-37, which was right when 6'4 C Chris McRae picked up his 4th foul and sent him to the bench. At that point All Hallows took control behind 5'11 PG James Brown, who scored 8 points after McRae went to the bench. Brown was fouled shooting a 3 at the buzzer of the 3rd quarter, trailing by 9 he nailed all 3 to bring the Gaels within 6 with 8 minutes to play. All Hallows would keep St. Raymond within striking distance. Up by 2 with under a minute to go 6'3 PF Louie McCroskey got the ball and tried to go around a double team but he slipped, right when one official was about to call a traveling (which was the right call) the other official called a blocking foul and sent McCroskey to the line. McCroskey hit both free throws, to put St. Ray's up 4. On the ensuing possesion 6'2 SG Ricky Soliver hit a 3 to pull All Hallows to within a single point with under 30 seconds left. All Hallows would have to foul, and sent McCroskey back to the line, but this time he could only convert one of two to give St. Ray's a 69-67 lead. All Hallows big man 6'8 Kiril Waschman got a good look from 4 feet and blew it, the ball would end up in Soliver's hands who was tied up by 6'6 SF Julius Hodge with 2.9 seconds left, and the possesion arrow was in favor of the Ravens. Chris McRae was fouled on the inbounds pass and hit 1 of 2 free throws, to ice it, as St. Ray's won 70-67. St. Ray's has now matched their longest winning streak of the year at 4, and stopped All Hallows 12 game streak. For All Hallows James Brown played excellent in the second half scoring 12 points in the half. 6'3 PF Raul Natera also played well in the second half scoring 6 points and grabbing about 5 rebounds in 11 minutes of playing time. All Hallows has to recover quickly as they play Rice on Friday. Something that I feel is important to address is why does All Hallows play in that little gym. For those of you that have never been to All Hallows it only sits about 100 people, and for a team that is as good as they are, they should be able to have more seating. Also there is 2 half court lines, in order to make the halfcourt on each side the regular size despite the court being about 10-15 feet too short. Why doesn't All Hallows play thier home games at the Gaucho Gym, since they are from the Bronx and the Gaucho Gym is in the Bronx, and Rice play their home games at Riverbank, since they both are in Harlem, to me that just makes sense.
2/4
Molloy vs. St. Raymond

    These two teams came in to the game on opposite notes, as Molloy had won 11 out of 12 but lost their last game, and St. Ray's came in losers of 3 of 5 but won their last 2. Molloy jumped out to an early 6-0 lead behind 3's from 6'4 SF John Sikiric and 6'2 SG Jamaal Wagner. And the way 6'7 SF Julius Hodge shot the ball it looked like it would be an easy victory for Molloy but 6'4 C Chris McRae would not allow the team to lose. McRae was able to out hustle 6'8 C Wendell Gibson to the boards to get many offensive putbacks which proved costly for the Stanners. 6'5 SF Kevin Diffley did his best to keep his team in the game by scoring 15 points off of the bench. It seemed in the second quarter Molloy played better after Gibson went to the bench, and were able to close the gap to 5 at the break. Gibson would start the second half but would sit the final 13 minutes of the game, for a reason I do not know. Molloy could not continue to play better without Gibson as this just opened up the boards for St. Ray's who had 3 players grab double digit rebounds, McRae grabbed 14 to go with his 27 points, 6'3 PF Louie McCroskey grabbed 12 rebounds and 6 points, and Hodge grabbed 10 boards and scored 16 points despite 3-16 shooting from the field. 6'4 PF John Jemmott and 6'0 PG Thomas Harrison tried to keep Molloy in it as they combined for 11 points in the quarter but it was not enough as McRae led the Ravens to a 78-65 victory. Jemmott finished the game with 11 points, 6'4 SF John Sikiric scored 10 and Diffley led Molloy with 15 points. 6'1 SG Allan Ray scored 11 points for St. Ray's despite missing many open shots. 6'0 PG Marlon Smith played about 3 minutes and scored 6 points and played real well, if he had played more the game may have had a different outcome.
    The freshmen game was a matchup of the two best freshman teams in the city. The first time these two teams met Molloy handed St. Ray's its only loss in overtime. This game was a good one as well. 6'3 PF Gavin Grant started the game off like a man on a mission scoring 7 of St. Ray's first 9 points to take St. Ray's out to a 9-2 lead. That lead would not last as Molloy would battle back behind 6'1 SF Sundiata Gaines who finished with 23 points. After tying the game up Molloy would see St. Ray's go back up by 7 at 29-22. Molloy would once again battle back and at the end of the half 5'10 PG Willis Ketrell hit a 3 from mid-court to give Molloy a 35-33 lead at the break. Molloy would open up a 7 point lead of their own in the 3rd quarter only to see St. Ray's come back behind Gavin Grant (31 points) and 6'2 C Brian Laing (20 points). St. Ray's would keep Molloy alive by missing free throws in the closing minutes. But Molloy could not capitalize as they fell 65-61. Two players from Molloy who impressed me were #11 and #40, if anyone knows their names please e-mail me.
2/2
Lincoln vs. St. Raymond

    Lincoln came into this game looking to avoid a let down after their shocking 81-67 victory the night before vs. arch rival Grady, but they could not for the first 8 minutes as they trailed 23-13. The one positive out of that for Lincoln was 6'0 SG John Quintana scored the first 11 points. St. Ray's was able to pull out to this big lead despite not shooting well, but they dominated the boards as 6'4 PF Louie McRoskey, and 6'7 SG Julius Hodge combined for 7 offensive rebounds (4 by McRoskey and 3 by Hodge). In the second quarter Lincoln woke up lead by Quintana and 5'10 PG Sebastian Telfair who scored 11 and 8 respectively in the quarter. But the major happening that changed the momentum was 6'4 C Chris McRae got into foul trouble and had to sit the final 3 minutes for St. Raymond. Lincoln began getting to the boards, and were able to take a 41-37 lead in to half time. Hodge scored 17 in the first half for the Ravens. Hodge set the tone on offense and defense in the second half. Offensively Hodge begun the quarter with a 3 to bring St. Ray's within 1. On the Defensive end Gary Decesare switched Julius Hodge on to John Quintana, and the result Quintana scored just 2 points in the 3rd quarter and St. Ray's outscored Lincoln 18-9 in the quarter. In the 4th quarter 5'9 PG Daon Merritt began to step up, as he looked like the best guard on the court in the final quarter. He scored 6 points in the quarter, dished out 3 assists and and got two key strips on Telfair. McRoskey was a benificiary of Merritt's good play as he was able to get several lay-ups off of his passes. Merrit finsihed the game with 11 points and 6 assists, McRoskey scored 14 points and grabbed 11 boards. 6'1 SG Doug Robinson kept Lincoln's slim 4th quarter hopes alive with three 3-pointers, the last of which closed the gap to 7 with about 1:50 left in the game. But they could get no closer as Hodge would seal the game for St. Ray's with 4 free throws to cap off his huge game of 35 points and 16 rebounds. Telfair finished the game with 17 points and 6 assists. Quintana led the way for Lincoln with 29 points, but just 7 in the second half, and 5 of those came in the final minute when the game was decided. After watching this game it is clear to me that some college scouts are watching different games than everyone else. I say this because when Lincoln played Grady at St. John's, a Boston University coach said Quintana isn't good enough to play there. How many kids in high school do you know can light up St. Ray's for 22 in a half? Then ask yourself how many of those kids will be playing in the Big East, ACC, Pac-10 or SEC, and probably none will be playing in the America East Conference as does BU.