Cardinal Hayes’ Jalen Jenkins had 10 points. (Denis Gostev)
Tyler Wilson saw Holy Cross as the perfect litmus test for his Cardinal Hayes team. How the Cardinals fare against the Knights, a perennial ‘AA’ contender, will determine just where they stand after moving up from the ‘A.’
“I always talked about it before the season started,” Wilson said of the season opener. “This game right here is gonna tell us where we’re at. If we win, we’re gonna be able to compete with the Christ the Kings and St. Raymonds. If we lose, we still got more work to do.”
By his own estimation, Cardinal Hayes may have already proven itself to be among the league’s elite.
Wilson had five of his seven points and two key assists in the fourth quarter to help lead Hayes to a 56-44 win over Holy Cross in a non-league boys basketball game between two CHSAA Class AA teams Friday night in Flushing.
“I feel like we proved to everybody that we’re a good team instead of all talk,” Fairfield-bound big man Amadou Sidibe said.
Hayes (1-0) was going to be a talented bunch coming into the season even before Rice closed and Wilson, Naasir Williams, Shavar Newkirk and Chris Robinson ended up at the Bronx school. Now the Cardinals, on paper, look like an immediate ‘AA’ contender.
Wilson made sure that label stuck Friday. Cross (0-1) was down just 40-35 when he swooped into the lane for a timely basket and foul. The junior lead guard made the free throw to put Hayes up 43-35 with 4:54 left.
He scored again on his team’s next possession and, right after that, found Donovan Johnson in transition for a basket and all of a sudden Hayes had a 7-0 run and was up 47-35. Eddie Roscigno responded with a three-point play for Holy Cross, but Wilson drove and dished again, this time to Sidibe for a huge three-point play that have the Cardinals a 50-38 lead with 3:37 left.
“He’s tough to stay in front of,” Hayes coach Joe Lods said. “He got the ball to the right guys in the opportune situations and made me look like I know what I’m doing.”
The 6-foot-8 Sidibe led a balanced scoring attack with 13 points and 6-foot-7 forward Jalen Jenkins, another lengthy future Division I forward, had 10 points. Fadil Yacoubou had eight points, Shavar Newkirk had six and Williams and Johnson each had five.
“Last year, I would think we would have folded under this pressure,” Sidibe said. “But we didn’t fold, we rose above it.”
Holy Cross routed Hayes in its season opener last year. On Friday, the Knights struggled shooting from the outside. Marquise Moore led them with 12 points and Will Davis and Roscigno each added 10. The Cardinals’ size and length was bothersome inside.
“When you’re not making your perimeter shots and can’t get to the basket, it doesn’t leave much,” Cross coach Paul Gilvary said.
Gilvary scoffed at the notion that Hayes was not a viable ‘AA’ team and he doesn’t believe there’s any talk about it.
“Anybody who questions that hasn’t been paying attention the last couple years,” he said. “What do they have five, six Division I players on the team? How many do you have to have to be a ‘AA’ team? They’re gonna do very well. They’re gonna have a very good season, I’m sure.”
Friday was a good way to start.
