Ed Gonzalez saw Khadeen Carrington out of the corner of his eye and turned away from reporters. The Bishop Loughlin star sophomore had taken off his jersey following an interview and Gonzalez, the team’s third-year coach, admonished him.
“Don’t ever take off your shirt,” Gonzalez said. “You know better than that.”
The departure of three star seniors to public schools has left Loughlin one of the youngest teams in New York City with eight sophomores. Things like proper postgame conduct are still coming along gingerly.
“Obviously I’m still teaching,” Gonzalez said with a laugh. “We don’t do that stuff.”
What the Lions are still doing is winning games.
The super-talented Carrington poured in 26 points to lead Loughlin to a 58-54 win over Mount St. Michael in non-league boys basketball yesterday in The Bronx. The Lions (3-3) might have lost Tyliek Kimbrough and Joel Angus to Boys & Girls and Travis Charles to Lincoln, but it remains one of the CHSAA’s better teams. Mount (5-1) was undefeated coming in.
“We’re not that young that we can’t play,” Carrington said.
Another sophomore, Lavar Harewood, gave Loughlin a 51-48 lead with 4:31 left that it would not relinquish. Junior Shywann Spencer had eight points and sophomore DaQuan Miller added eight rebounds.
All the talk in the preseason was how much Loughlin lost, not what it still has. That has been a source of motivation. And Gonzalez calls this his favorite group because of the players’ willingness to learn as well as their guts.
“One thing about this team, they’re resilient,” he said. “They’re not gonna let up. They’re gonna play all the way until the fourth quarter when it says 0:00 on the clock. You’re gonna see these guys battle.”
It also doesn’t hurt to have the 6-foot-3 Carrington, a lengthy, athletic high Division I prospect. He says he has interest from St. John’s and Rutgers, but Gonzalez doesn’t tell him all the schools who have called about him because he doesn’t want to give him a big head.
“[He’s] one of the better players in the city, hands down,” Gonzalez said.
Omari Manhertz led Mount with 16 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks. His three-point play with 5:11 left drew the Mountaineers even at 48. Ed Correa had 16 points and Malik Gill added eight points. Mount was riding high on a five-game win streak and coming off a big win Tuesday against Long Island powerhouse Harborfields.
“Today was the first time we didn’t really make shots,” said Mountaineers coach Tom Fraher, whose team was also mired in foul trouble.
He said he wasn’t surprised about how scrappy Loughlin was – Gonzalez’s teams always play hard, Fraher noted. This is a victory that will stun some, though.
Loughlin came in without much hype, winning just two of its first six games and seemingly still reeling from losing those three key seniors. The team also played today without another very good sophomore, Elisha Boone (back spasms).
The Lions don’t really mind not drawing any early headlines.
“It’s easier for us, because we don’t got the light on us,” Carrington said. “We’re the underdogs. We’re gonna show people.”
His jersey was back on when he said it. There was learning to accompany the teaching.