Christ the King’s biggest step as a team this season came in a loss.
A day after beating nationally ranked Dillard (Fla.), the Royals nearly knocked of Long Beach Poly, ranked fifth in the country by USA Today. Their comeback attempted fell short in a 58-54 loss to the Jackrabbits in the winners’ bracket of the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix, Ariz., Saturday.
Long Beach Poly handled St. Michael Academy, the defending New York State Federation champion, 69-47, in the finals of the Iolani Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii last week. CK (3-2) gets a day off before it plays Riverdale-Baptist (Md.) in the fifth-place bracket 12:30 p.m. PST Monday.
“I think they are rising to the level of the competition,” Christ the King coach Bob Mackey said, “if we can beat the team out of Florida and then turn around and play Long Beach Poly pretty much to the last minute almost dead even. It was right there.”
The Royals trailed by as many as 10 points in the third quarter, but amped up their man-to-man defense and got to a number of loose balls as they mounted a comeback. CK ran a play to get sharpshooters Lauren Nuss and Jackie Michel a look, but they were well defended. Ariel Edwards stepped up and made a 3-pointer to pull CK within 43-39 early in the fourth and Smith added a 3-point play with less than a minute to go to again cut the lead to three, but the Royals missed four free throws in the final minute.
“You have to make those to win big games,” Mackey said.
Edwards, who is headed to Penn State next season, finished with 19 points and eight rebounds and Smith had 18 points and 12 boards for Christ the King. Nia Oden added four points and six rebounds. Sheila Boykin led Long Beach Poly (9-0) with 15 points.
“She hung in there,” Mackey said of Edwards. “She was pretty much banged all game long and was guarded by a 6-4 kid who was just as athletic, bigger, stronger, faster.”
The Royals had to play without Smith for much of the first quarter. The star junior picked up two fouls less than a minute into the game. She and Oden, who picked up her fourth late in the third quarter, both sat out the final 1:30 of the first half with two fouls. CK trailed by just four at the break.
“If Bria doesn’t pick up those two fouls early,” Mackey said, “I think we are leading at halftime and I don’t think we look back.”
St. Peter’s 68, St. Joseph by the Sea 24: Christine Kline scored 15 points for St. Peter’s (3-0, 2-0) in CHSAA Staten Island. Jamie O’Hare added 10 points. St. Joseph by the Sea is 1-2, 0-2.
Staten Island Academy 58, Miss Porter’s 46: Casey Bray scored 17 points and Bethany Claps added 16 for Staten Island Academy (11-0) in the semifinals of the Kingswood-Oxford Tournament in West Hartford, Conn. It beat host Kingswood-Oxford 65-43 in the opening round and advanced to Sunday’s final at 4 p.m.
Notes: St. Michael Academy, The Post’s top-ranked team in New York City, defeated Regis Jesuit (Colo.) in the Festival of the Phoenix event at University HS in Newark, N.J.