H.S. BASKETBALL

St. Ray’s 77

Molloy 72

Early on for St. Raymond’s, it was Louie McCroskey driving to the basket and Brian Laing scoring in the paint.

Down the stretch, it was Tariq Atkins making short jump shots, Ricky Torres putting back offensive rebounds, and Daon Merritt sinking free throws. All together, it was more than Archbishop Molloy’s star guard tandem could handle. And so a flush of St. Raymond’s orange and black trumped Molloy’s pair of aces yesterday at Alumni Hall.

Five Ravens scored in double figures, offsetting a combined 45 points from Molloy’s Marlon Smith and Sundiata Gaines, to lead St. Raymond’s to a 77-72 victory in the finale of the Catholic High Schools Coaches vs. Cancer Classic tripleheader.

Two routs preceded the well-played nightcap. Rice High stayed undefeated by thrashing All Hallows 68-47, and St. Francis Prep blasted overmatched Msgr. McClancy 79-42 in the opener.

But no team looked better than the Ravens, who improve to 3-0 with impressive wins over Lincoln and Molloy.

“[Our depth] is a strength for us,” St. Raymond’s coach Oliver Antigua said. “If I was an opposing coach, you know, who do you try to stop? You’ve got to focus on somebody.”

That depth showed up most late in the fourth quarter when an 11-0 Ravens run turned a 64-63 lead into a 12-point cushion. Atkins led St. Raymond’s (3-0) with 17 points, and Laing added 16. McCroskey, a Syracuse University recruit, scored 11, and Torres and Merritt added 10 apiece. Gaines led Molloy with 29 points, but couldn’t help his team down low, where St. Raymond’s owned a 53-31 rebounding edge.

The game also featured the return of Merritt, who sat out much of November due to injuries suffered in a car accident. Playing in front of his mother for the first time in his high school career, the point guard scored 10 points in 15 minutes off the bench.

“It’s a big relief,” Merritt said. “It’s good to be out there, contributing anyway I can. I jut feel blessed to be back.”

A couple hours before St. Raymond’s welcomed back a leader, rival Rice discovered a new one.

With 7-foot-2 center Shagari Alleyne sitting out the back end of a two-game suspension, forward Arturo Dubois dominated All Hallows inside. He finished with 22 points and four blocked shots. Alleyne, in street clothes for what head coach Maurice Hicks termed “team-related discipline issues,” should return for the Raiders’ tournament this weekend in Florida.

In the opener, St. Francis Prep cruised behind 20 points from Andrew Cashin and 18 from Bryan Geffen.

McClancy, still reeling from the recent expulsion of star player Wesley Matthews, looked disorganized and never got closer than 20 after the break.