Quantcast

Bosco’s Corner: Tournament proves parity in CHSAA

By Anthony Bosco

Parity, parity, parity.

Without question, that was the word of the day Sunday at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. Six teams from the Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan waged war in three games during the annual Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan Tournament and the results could not have been more satisfying.

A day after having watched St. John's University upset the Duke Blue Devils, I witnessed an upset just as great, when the Holy Cross Knights defeated the Christ the King Royals. It is as big an upset as I can remember on the high school level and certainly one those who witnessed it will never forget.

All year long the Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan seemed to have balance, with four teams at the top, three at the bottom. The top four teams – Bishop Loughlin, Christ the King, St. Francis Prep and Archbishop Molloy – seemed like they could all knock off one another, while the bottom three seemed all on par with one another.

But even with a seemingly discernible line drawn separating the top from the bottom, no game was a walkover. The first game of the season was a perfect example, when Christ the King, then predicted to return to the CHSAA city championship for a third straight season, needed overtime to beat Xaverian.

Fast-forward to Sunday when the table seemed level for all seven.

Holy Cross head coach Paul Gilvary has always said that any team in the league was capable of beating any other team on any day. But while I always believed there was parity in the league, I don't know if I really bought into Gilvary's statement.

It really seemed far-fetched that Cross could beat Christ the King, and I'm sure that most of the people in attendance felt the same. But lo and behold, it happened. Chris Fileti launched the ball into the air as the clock ran out in the fourth quarter and the Knights swarmed the court like the team had just won the NCAA championship.

Afterward, Gilvary was beaming like a proud parent, commending his players for executing his game plan to perfection. His glee was palpable.

Outside after the game, one teenage girl, an obvious Christ the King fan, was still in shock. “How can we lose to Holy Cross?” she lamented. “We killed Holy Cross twice this year.”

Though Cross' victory was the only true upset of the day, the fact that McClancy battled evenly with St. Francis Prep throughout their match-up, the second game on the day, was a surprise in itself. In fact, all it would have taken for McClancy to pull off the upset was a few breaks, breaks, as it turned out, that went to the favored Terriers.

But even though they lost, the Crusaders left nothing on the court. Darryl Boykins, Kevin Bishop, Khari Council, Tremaine Stevens and Anthony Olszewski played their hearts out against a team that was supposed to cruise on through to the semifinals.

The Terriers had to dig in their heels late in the game just to get even and needed big-time foul shooting to win. A bounce here, a turnover there and the game has a different outcome.

The final contest of the three-game day pitted Molloy against Xaverian. Though Molloy was expected to do big things this year, the loss of big man Wendell Gibson to injury near the end of the season certainly put the Stanners' postseason expectations in jeopardy.

In one of the final regular season games, Xaverian avenged an earlier defeat to Molloy and was looking to pull the upset again this past weekend. With Gibson gone, Molloy seemed vulnerable in the middle and Xaverian had already proved capable.

But true to form, coach Jack Curran got his troops to prevail, coming on late in the game to score the win and advance to the semifinals. Xaverian, the fifth seed, had to be content, like McClancy, being competitive.

It is very rare to find such parity, especially on the high school level. Often, teams competing for the same league or division championship should not even be on the same court, field, etc. But in the CHSAA basketball league, it's anybody's ball game.

Upsets, however, are not the rule. More likely than not, the favorites will end up competing for the city championship, while teams like Holy Cross and McClancy will be sent packing. But anything is possible.

When looking at the four teams remaining in the Brooklyn/Queens tournament following Sunday's action, Bishop Loughlin, the No. 1 seed that got a bye in the first round, is the obvious pick to win it all. Still, the only team to beat Loughlin this year in league play, St. Francis Prep, should be there in the finals to test Loughlin.

Of course, that is if the higher seeds win, which, as we know, is no lock in this league.