By David Cordova
This season, the competition in the CHSAA has been wide open to the point that any team can be defeated on any given night. Even the teams with the youngest talent can always knock off a team with veteran talent.
Last night, Bishop Loughlin, the first-place team in the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens “AA” division, went up against a Holy Cross team that has been slept-on after beating tough non-league programs such as Long Island Lutheran and Brooklyn Law & Tech. In this game, both teams showed that competition is always a must, but only one team would be the victor after 32 minutes of play.
Bishop Loughlin 85, Holy Cross 68
Holy Cross would start out aggressive in the early going as they would jump out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first couple of minutes. But then the Lions stormed back behind dunks from seniors Keith Williams & Jordan Thomas, which brought them to a 9-8 lead with less than three minutes in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Lions led by the shooting display of junior Markquis Nowell, eventually led by seven, 27-20, with less than five minutes to go. But Holy Cross, with their resilient group of players, ended up taking the lead, 30-29, with 1:40 to go in the first half. The shooting of sophomore Elijah Perry kept the Knights close. But Loughlin would go into the the half, leading 36-33 at intermission, after a Nowell three-pointer.
Loughlin came out on a mission in their third quarter, as their transition game & their ability to draw fouls, allowed them to lead by twelve, 45-33, with 5:12 to go. But then the Knights came back and then trailed the Lions by five at the end of the quarter.
But that deficit would increase, as Loughlin brought their lead back to double digits, as they led by thirteen, 63-50, with at least six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. After that, Holy Cross would not recover, as the Lions would go on to a lopsided victory.
Nowell led Loughlin with 30 points, seven assists and six steals and Williams added 15 points and six rebounds. For the Knights, Perry led with 21 points and senior Jonas Cooper added 17 points and 11 rebounds in the loss.
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