NYPost.com’s CHSAA boys basketball beat writer Marc Raimondi breaks down the Archdiocesan championship game between No. 3 Mount St. Michael and No. 4 St. Raymond, scheduled for 1:45 p.m. Saturday at Mount. For real-time Twitter updates, click here
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No. 3 Mount St. Michael Mountaineers
Head coach: Tom Fraher
Record: 20-6
Player to watch: Malik Gill
No. 4 St. Raymond Ravens
Head coach: Oliver Antigua
Record: 17-9
Player to watch: Daniel Dingle
Outlook: If this game is anything like the previous two between Mount St. Michael and St. Raymond this season, the spectators in attendance will be in for a treat.
In the first meeting, Malik Gill willed Mount to a dramatic overtime victory. The Mountaineers answered every big Ravens shot with Andrew Utate delivering from beyond the arc time after time. It was one of the biggest victories in Mount history, according to coach Tom Fraher.
Daniel Dingle, St. Ray’s Temple-bound star, missed key free throws late in that game. He wasn’t going to let his team lose to Mount a second time, though. In the most recent encounter, Dingle had 23 points, eight rebounds and knocked down the go-ahead 16-foot jump shot with just six seconds left to seal the victory.
Both times these two teams went at it, the games were tight, back-and-forth affairs. There’s no reason to expect less this time.
St. Raymond is playing perhaps its best basketball of the season, stringing together four straight wins against Lincoln, Boys & Girls, All Hallows and Cardinal Hayes – two of those three squards are part of New York City’s elite. Larry Graves has been exceptional, putting in 19 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter against Hayes in the Archdiocesan semis Tuesday night. Point guard Shane Rector is also finally healthy and playing terrific in support of star swingmen Dingle and Temple-bound Kerwin Okoro.
Mount is coming off a win over St. Peter’s in the semifinals, getting revenge on the Eagles for a previous loss at the buzzer. The Mountaineers are one of the most balanced teams in the city with players who can shoot the ball from deep across their lineup. Utate, Anthony Maestre and Ed Correa are gunners. Gill is one of the best defenders in the league and has become a top player in the city this year. Freak athlete Omari Manhertz is good for at least two-to-three highlight reel dunks per game.
The winner of this game also gets a big boost in the intersectional tournament. The loser will earn the No. 2 seed from the diocese and could be looking at a quarterfinal date with Christ the King, which was upset in the Brooklyn/Queens semifinals by Bishop Loughlin. The Archdiocesan winner will have a little easier road to the Promised Land: a CHSAA Class AA intersectional title and trip upstate.
The first time around, when Mount beat St. Ray’s, it was thought to be a large upset. No longer. The Mountaineers are a top-notch squad capable of knocking off just about any team in the city. St. Ray’s is also among the cream of the crop. This one has all the makings of a Game of the Year candidate.
