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Loughlin charges forward thanks to Ravanell
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Kevin Ravanell Jr. had one of his best offensive games of the season, but his biggest contribution came on the other end of the court in Bishop Loughlin’s 56-50 win against Archbishop Stepinac Sunday afternoon in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
More important than his 10 points were the four charges he drew, including one ate in the fourth quarter. It’s not something that shows up on a stat sheet, but it was critical to the Lions success in Sunday’s non-league win.
“Coming into the game, coach told me I had to step up offensively and defensively,” said Ravanell, who was 4-for-4 from the field, 2-for-2 from the line and had 10 rebounds. “In past games, there’s been opportunities for me to take a charge and I wasn’t able to capitalize. Today I was.”
On a team stacked with talented sophomores, Ravanell, a 6-foot-1 swingman from The Bronx, is Loughlin’s lone senior. Head coach Ed Gonzalez became emotion when describing Ravanell’s importance.
“He’s such a great kid,” Gonzalez said. “He doesn’t care about scoring. He says ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to win. I love you guys. I’ll guard the biggest guy, I don’t care.’”
Khadeen Carrington scored a game-high 14 points, including a bucket in the lane with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter to put Bishop Loughlin (10-9) in front, 53-50. Fellow sophomore Michael Williams added 11 points for the Lions and Elisha Boone had nine points and eight rebounds, which fell to Xaverian, 88-77, Friday night.
“It was important because we lost to Xaverian and we knew Stepinac beat St. Rays and we lost to St. Rays,” Carrington said. “That just tells you how good we are. We can beat anybody.”
After racing out to a 14-4 lead, Bishop Loughlin trailed by as many as 10 in the second quarter following a 14-2 run by Archbishop Stepinac (9-10), which led 32-27 at the half and 46-41 after three quarters.
Led by Quarry Greenway (12 points) and Josh James (10 points), the Crusaders led by seven early in the fourth quarter, but went scoreless in the final 4:30 of regulation, including four consecutive empty possessions with Bishop Loughlin leading 51-50.
“Down the stretch we needed some baskets and we didn’t get them,” Stepinac coach Tim Philp said.
Despite his team’s struggles down the stretch, Philp thought Stepinac responded well after a 33-point loss at Cardinal Hayes Friday night.
“I was happy with the way we played, I thought we played good especially after coming off of the Hayes game Friday,” Philp said. “I like the way we rebounded. I thought we had control of the whole game until the fourth quarter.”
Conversely, Gonzalez couldn’t have been more pleased with the way Loughlin closed out the game.
“I saw it in their eyes, they didn’t look nervous,” Gonzalez said. “They were very poised and patient. For a young team, that’s pretty good. I liked what I saw at the end of the game.”
Contact Dylan Butler at dbutler3@cablevision.com
Follow him on Twitter: @Dylan_Butler
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