By Dylan Butler
On one trip down the court, Holy Cross (7-6), a team with only one player – Laurence Jolicoeur – to play significant varsity minutes last year, looks like a team that could compete for the CHSAA title. But then by throwing the ball away, taking bad shots, missing defensive assignments, the Knights look like a team that has just three seniors.”I don't even blame it on youth,” Gilvary said. “I blame it more on inexperience.”Sylven Landesberg is the leader of Holy Cross' solid sophomore class and displayed his brilliance by scoring a game-high 29 points on 11-of-16 shooting, including 3-of-3 from three-point range.His four-point play brought the Knights to within 60-58 with 4:44 left in the fourth quarter.But Wings (14-0), which rotates a four-guard offense and isn't shy to hoist up three-pointers, scored the next five points – including a step-back trey by game MVP Rasheem Jenkins. The senior finished with 21 points and had five of his team's 10 three-pointers.”A lot of our team is sophomores,” Landesberg said. “But we're not waiting for two years, we're trying to win this year.”Edy Toussaint knocked down a pair of free throws to tie the game at 67 with 31.9 seconds left, but Joshua Spivey (21 points) buried two free throws with 0.4 seconds left to seal the win for Wings.”What I like about them is that they don't let a bad stretch bother them that much,” Gilvary said of his team. “They're very resilient and they keep fighting back.”Poughkeepsie 73, Cardozo 67. Sean Crawford scored a game-high 34 points and Edmund McRae and Mike Troll added 11 points each but the Judges (8-1) were upset by undefeated Poughkeepsie, which were led by Tyquan Stroman (24 points and 15 rebounds).St. John the Baptist 82, McClancy 59. Stephen Wood had 21 points and Evans Pyrrhon had 11 for McClancy (4-4), which led by eight at the half. Anthony Parris scored 21 of his game-high 28 points in a 41-point third quarter for Baptist.NOTES: St. John's University will host the next day of the Classic Jan. 29. Holy Cross and Cardozo meet in one of seven matchups…The tournament honors Tom Crotty, who was a managing director at Sandler O'Neill and died on 9/11. He played basketball at Marist and is believed to be the only former Division I basketball player to die in the terrorist attacks…According to tournament director Sam Albano, many of the referees donated their game checks to the Crotty fund.Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
