Before last season, there was a mass exodus at Bishop Loughlin, three star seniors leaving the Catholic school for the PSAL. Mike Williams and Khadeen Carrington were just sophomores at the time, thrust into starring roles.
They took their lumps, but the highly recruited duo grew better for it, and will now have a shot to bring the Fort Greene, Brooklyn school its city championship since 1992 on Sunday after Thursday night’s dominant 78-56 rout over Archbishop Stepinac in the CHSAA Class AA boys basketball intersectional semifinals at Fordham University.
“I know we had a good team coming up, even without all the transfers” Carrington said. “Now we’re here.”
The Lions (21-7) will face the Christ the King, who defeated Cardinal Hayes, 65-59, at 3 p.m., also at Fordham.
Williams and Carrington, who holds a series of high-major scholarships offers from schools such as St. John’s, Connecticut, Florida State and Cincinnati, combined for 11 first quarter points as Loughlin raced out to a 29-8 lead after the opening stanza and never looked back. Loughlin was up 49-25 by halftime and 63-35 after the third quarter.
“That was the game plan, we had to get off to a good start,” Loughlin coach Ed Gonzalez said. “We wanted to put the pressure on them.”
Williams scored a team-high 17 points, and the 6-foot-2 Carrington finished with 14. When the seniors left, rumors spread about them leaving as well. But Carrington never considered going anywhere.
“Coach [Gonzalez] is like a father figure to me,” he said. “That’s why I stayed — loyalty.”
The two juniors had plenty of help. Senior point guard Jordan Nanton (11 points) provided a spark by getting into the teeth of the Stepinac defense and junior wing Javion Delacruz was potent from the perimeter and tallied 15 points.
“The kids know he’s our leader,” Gonzalez said of Nanton. “I tell him we go as you go. He sets the tone for us.”
Stepinac’s Josh James, a Monmouth signee, poured in 34 points in defeat. The Crusaders finish the year at 20-8 while Loughlin has at least one game left, a chance to end the school’s 21-year title drought.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” Delacruz said. “We all started together as freshmen.”
The Lions last reached the title game three years ago, where it lost to Christ the King in a triple overtime thriller. Several members of that group, such as Villanova’s JayVaughn Pinkston and Fordham’s Branden Frazier, told Gonzalez they would be there if Loughlin could make it back.
Now only did Gonzalez’s team get back to the finals, they will face Christ the King, Loughlin’s nemesis.
“That’s what we want,” Carrington said. “They swept us this season. We know we’re the better team.”
zbraziller@nypost.com