By Five Boro Sports
Christ the King senior guard Sean Johnson called his team’s game against Boys & Girls, the finale of the first day of the PSAL-CHSAA Challenge, his team’s first real test.
Boys & Girls already had two tests — and the Kangaroos failed both.
But Saturday night at Carnesecca Arena, Boys passed — in part because Lamont Samuell Jr. didn’t. The senior guard’s layup with 34.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter gave the Kangaroos its first lead of the second half and helped lift Boys & Girls to a stunning, 58-55 upset of the Royals at St. John’s University.
“I’m supposed to pass it, but the big man stepped out and I went around him,” Samuell. said. “I thought the kid in the corner was going to step out, but he didn’t. I just laid it up.”
Samuell, who attended Robeson as a sophomore and Adelphi Academy last year, earned game MVP honors, scoring a game-high 19 points, including a pair of clutch free throws with nine seconds left.
Christ the King junior guard Kareem Thomas had an open look from the top of the key, but his three-point attempt that would have tied the game rimmed out with one second left to seal an impressive Boys & Girls victory.
“That’s what we set up for: a shot for him,” Christ the King Coach Joe Arbitello said. “He was shooting the ball really well. It was exactly what we wanted.”
The same couldn’t be said for sophomore Corey Edwards’ forced layup in traffic with nine seconds left that would have given the Royals’ the lead. Not with Johnson open on the right wing.
“That was a sophomore mistake,” Johnson said. “But in other games he’s going to make that pass or pass it to someone else.”
Johnson, an undeclared senior, was on fire early, scoring 11 of his team’s 17 first-quarter points. But he was hit with his third foul early in the second quarter and sat for the remainder of the first half.
Johnson was called for a controversial charge on the baseline 38 seconds into the third quarter and was never able to get back into a rhythm.
“I saw the charge coming so I tried to move to the left to avoid it, but they called the charge,” Johnson said. “I don’t think it was fair.”
Boys & Girls (5-2) capitalized, getting to within two on back-to-back threes by Samuell and trailed 49-43 heading into the fourth quarter.
Tyler Young scored back-to-back buckets to get the Kangaroos to within one, 55-54, with 1:16 left. Christ the King senior guard Marion Smith (13 points) was called for a five-second call with 48.9 seconds left, setting the stage for Samuell’s dramatic layup.
“I have all the confidence in the world in him,” Boys & Girls sophomore guard Michael Taylor said of Samuel. “I know he’s going to make it. This is a big statement. We had to win this game.”
That was especially true after back-to-back losses to John F. Kennedy and Thomas Jefferson last week.
“It shows what a difference a week can make. We felt we beat ourselves,” Boys & Girls Coach Ruth Lovelace said. “We needed to get a win tonight.”
As for Christ the King (2-1), which cruised in blowout wins against Jamaica and Van Buren, it had its first taste of adversity in the early season.
“We played a very good team without Sean for most of the game,” Arbitello said. “It’s a positive that guys got a lot more experience. You’re not trying to win the city championship in the third game of the season.”
