St. Raymond’s struggles continue.
The young Ravens boys’ basketball team lost for the fourth time in its last five games and its third in a row after falling 78-52 to PSAL power Abraham Lincoln 78-52 in the Apparel Challenge at Christ the King last Sunday. The four-game event pitted team sponsored by Nike against ones sponsored by Under Armour.
St. Raymond’s, which started the season 5-0, ends a tough four-game stretch. It beat St. Mary’s, but lost to division rivals Cardinal Hayes and Iona Prep, and lost to Lincoln on Sunday. The Ravens (7-4) got behind early and could never get back against the Railsplitters (12-2).
“I thought we had lapses defensively,” St Raymond coach Jorge Lopez said. “They did a good job attacking us, but we had to many breakdowns defensively and a difficult time guarding tour man in front of us. We just had a hard time containing them. They are a quick and a very aggressive team.”
St. Raymond’s struggles early on really hampered their efforts to get back into the contest in the second half. Lincoln got off to a fast start on both sides of the ball in the first quarter, and by the time the quarter was over Lincoln led 22-8.
Both teams were sloppy in the second stanza. There wasn’t much scoring on either side, but St. Raymond’s had their opportunity to get back into the game. It held Lincoln scoreless for the final five minutes before the half, but the Ravens were not able to capitalize on the opportunity and trailed 33-18 at halftime.
St. Raymond was able to fight back after the break and get back into the contest. It cut the deficit to 10 with four minutes left in the third. Lincoln took any momentum that the Ravens had away. St. Raymond’s got sloppy its ball handling as Lincoln went on a 12-2 run to end the quarter to take a 57-36 lead into the final frame.
Ezekiel Charles scored a game high 22 points to lead Abraham Lincoln and Tyler Bourne added 18 points. Cahiem Brown paced St. Raymond with 13 points and Sidney Wilson added 12. Lopez did not make his players available to the media. His Ravens will try to get back on track as quickly as possible.
“We told the guys to put the loss behind them,” Lopez said. “We have to play together, we have to be more unselfish, and we have to do a better job defending.”
