WHITE PLAINS — With four returning starters and an influx of talent after the closure of Rice, Cardinal Hayes posed a challenge unlike anything Stepinac had faced all season. That the Crusaders were short-handed didn’t help, although it may not have mattered.
Stepinac struggled against the taller, longer and deeper Cardinals, falling at home 52-37 on Friday night in a CHSAA league game. “It was like they had six guys on defense,” Stepinac coach Tim Philp said. “Any time we even got into the paint, we had to alter our shot because they were so long, athletic and fast.” Sophomore Naim Thomas led the Crusaders with 13 points, but he and the rest of the backcourt were left without a key counterpart.Stepinac (5-5) entered having won five of their last six, but played last night without one of the players responsible for that streak, Tyler Iacuone. The senior guard missed the game as he tries to overcome pneumonia and the flu. He may be out even longer as he tries to recover.
“Tyler’s our leading scorer so he would’ve been another option, but they did a good job defensively,” Philp said. “I thought we did a good job defensively as well, but we just couldn’t get it going.”
Without Iacuone, the Crusaders struggled to contend with Rice transfers Shavar Newkirk and Tyler Wilson. The speedy guards were among a group of four players who enrolled at Hayes after the Harlem school closed its doors. They have since combined with returning stars such as 6-foot-8 Fairfield-bound forward Amadou Sidibe and 6-8 Jalen Jenkins, another Division I prospect who lives in Yonkers.
“They helped out well. They played really good help defense,” Thomas said. “Their bigs down low were so long. When we attacked the basket, they were blocking everything.”
Sidibe and Jenkins were quiet in the scoring column throughout much of the night but they kept undersized Stepinac off the boards and prevented any easy shots. Newkirk and Wilson paced an otherwise stalling offense with their play in the open court. Newkirk, a sophomore, led the Cardinals with 19 points while Wilson added 10.Hayes broke open a 16-13 game with a 15-4 run to end the first half. Stepinac trailed by double digits throughout the second half, although Malik Omess had a 3-pointer that would’ve cut it to nine midway through the fourth quarter.
Devino McRae added eight points and nine rebounds for the Crusaders. Junior star Josh James struggled early before scoring all eight of his points in the second half. Stepinac split with Hayes last season after beating the Bronx school three times the year before, including in a comeback victory in the CHSAA ‘A’ championship game at Fordham.
