LI Lutheran loses to Bishop Loughlin
Long Island Lutheran's Kentan Facey looks to get around standout Bishop Loughlin player Khadeem Carrington. (Feb. 15, 2012) Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
It may have looked like a circus shot, but Khadeem Carrington actually practices such acrobatics.
"Sometimes Coach asks me, 'What are you doing?' I tell him I'm working on my crazy shots," Carrington said.
Carrington, a sophomore for Bishop Loughlin, which plays in the tough New York City CHSAA, didn't ride a unicycle or swing from a trapeze. But he hit a spectacular hanging, righthanded flip shot in traffic with 1:07 left that gave Loughlin a three-point lead. He added three shut-the-door foul shots in the final seconds of a grueling 64-59 victory over host Long Island Lutheran Wednesday night.
"I practice that," said Carrington, who scored 12 of his game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter to hold off the Crusaders (17-5).
"He's the best sophomore in New York City," Lutheran coach John Buck said. "At least four times we played defense as well as you can on him and he still scored."
Carrington and teammate Elisha Boone (19 points), another sophomore, showed a knack for getting off shots in traffic, especially in the lane. They used quickness to offset the size advantage LuHi had with 6-9 Kentan Facey (11 points, 10 rebounds) and 6-7 Ryan DeNicola (eight points, seven rebounds). Tim Quashie led the Crusaders with 12 points and Brandon Alford had 11, including three treys.
The last of them came from deep in the left corner with 18.1 seconds left on a feed from emerging freshman point guard Chris Atkinson that brought Lutheran to within 61-59.
After a timeout, the Crusaders fouled Carrington, who missed the first free throw but made the second for a three-point lead. Lutheran couldn't get off a good shot and turned the ball over with 7.6 seconds left. Carrington caught the inbounds pass and waited for the inevitable foul.
With the crowd trying to distract him with noise, Carrington made both to seal the non-league victory. "That's why I didn't pass the ball," he said. "I'm a confident foul shooter."
Two baskets in traffic by Carrington capped a 9-0 run that gave Loughlin a 49-44 lead with 6:39 left. Carrington's breakaway layup made it 52-46, but LuHi wouldn't go away. Quashie converted a steal into a layup and hit a pull-up jumper, and Facey thrilled the crowd with a soaring dunk that cut the deficit to 53-52.
Quashie's putback made it 57-56, but that's when Carrington went all Barnum & Bailey on Lutheran, which needs to beat Albany Academy on March 4 in the Bronx to get the chance to defend its Class A state Federation title in Albany in late March.
"We would've loved to win this game,'' Buck said, "but we played hard and it's an excellent prep for our postseason."
