Sidney Wilson ran through the middle of the lane and rose above the Bishop Loughlin defense to slam home an Isaiah Washington miss and was fouled.
The three-point play kept the St. Raymond boys’ basketball team ahead by four with 4:00 to go in the game and appeared to be the emotional boost it needed to close out an impressive win.
Instead it was the Lions who roared, fully erasing an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Ravens 89-84 in front of a raucous, standing-room only crowd in Fort Greene on Jan. 22. The contest was a battle of diocesan and a potential playoff preview.
“Usually that is one of the plays that propels us to get a win, but tonight it propelled them even more,” Wilson said. “They took that as disrespectful and they just took that as we have to turn this game around too.”
Loughlin, which trailed 74-63 after three quarters outscored the Ravens 26-10 in the fourth quarter and held them to just three points over the game’s final 4:00. St. Raymond (10-7, 7-3) was one and done too often on offense after the dunk and Marquis Nowell sparked the Lions in transition.
He scored eight of 13 points in the final frame. His jumper tied the score and a feed to Jordan Thomas (14 points) for a layup put Loughlin (12-3, 8-1) ahead for good at 83-81 with 1:10 to play in the game. St. Ray’s pulled within 87-85 on a trey by Isaiah Washington, but Loughlin immediately answered with a transition hoop.
“I just thought we had a lack of focus in the fourth quarter,” Ravens coach Jorge Lopez said. “We broke down offensively. We didn’t get out to every loose ball and grab every rebound. I thought they made the plays they needed to make to cut the lead and eventually take the lead.”
Keith Williams led Loughlin with 27 points and 12 rebounds. He hit consecutive three-pointers in the fourth to began his team’s rally. Washington paced the Ravens with 21 points and seven assists and Omar Silverio had 20 points, including four three-pointers. Wilson chipped in 15 points and 11 boards.
St. Raymond left Brooklyn saying it lost the game on the boards. Loughlin had too many second chance points and turned rebounds into transition points in the fourth quarter.
“It was the rebounding that messed us up,” Washington said.
In the third quarter his team appeared to finally take control of a back-and-forth game that was tied at the half. A 7-0 run capped by a Silverio jumper put the Ravens up eight. They went up 11 twice, the second on a late put back by Brian Adams. St. Raymond wasn’t able to hold the advantage to secure a big win that was there for the taking.
“They are a good team, give them that,” Wilson said. “They play hard, but if we were a little more mature down the stretch we could have really took care of the lead.”
