Saturday was full of surprises for the St. Raymond’s School for Boys Ravens of the Bronx, as their boys’ basketball team won the archdiocesan “AA” playoffs 57-51 over Archbishop Stepinac High School Crusaders of White Plains.

Stepinac came into the final as the clear favorite, having defeated St. Ray’s both at home and away during the scholastic season. It also marks the second consecutive year that Stepinac made it to the title game but came away empty-handed.

Hosted at Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx, the game was unexpectedly delayed for about 10 minutes with 1:02 remaining in the first by a fire alarm. Players, coaches, referees, and hundreds of spectators stayed where they were, the alarm was turned off, and play resumed.

Following a close and defense-heavy first quarter, after which Stepinac led 13-10, the Crusaders seemed to drop into gear. With just under 2:30 remaining in the second quarter, Stepinac led by 15 points, 29-14, before going into the half leading 29-23.

St. Ray’s Coach Jorge Lopez must have said something to motivate his team during halftime. It took the St. Ray’s juniors and sophomores just over two minutes to pull even with Stepinac, and then they took the lead with 3:25 remaining in the third quarter. Stepinac scored only five points in the third quarter.

From there, it was all St. Ray’s.

Brandon Stores, Jr., a junior led St. Ray’s with 15 points. nine rebounds, and two steals. Tai Turnage, also a junior, contributed 15 points, four rebounds, and a steal. The win is St. Ray’s 10th Archdiocesan championship in school history.

“It means the world for us to win this,” said Dava Mosley Cisse, mother of sophomore Hassan Cisse, one of St. Ray’s starting guards. “I was praying the whole game. God answers prayers,” she said.

Both St. Ray’s and Stepinac now enter the New York City intersectional playoffs, which includes top teams from the Diocese of Brooklyn. They will begin play in the quarter-finals, having established themselves as the number one and two seed, respectively. 

St. Ray’s will face the winner of Brooklyn’s Xaverian High School and New Rochelle’s Iona Preparatory School. Stepinac, the intersectional defending champions, will play the winner of St. Peter’s Boys High School of Staten Island and Brooklyn’s Christ The King High School. The quarterfinals will be played on Sunday, March 3; the semi-finals on Wednesday, March 6; and the final on Sunday, March 10. All games on those dates will be played at Fordham University in the Bronx. 

——————–

Sign up for The Good Newsroom’s weekly newsletter, a summary of our top stories and events, here.