01/23/2009 10:51 PM ET
St. Raymond stuns Boys & Girls
All-Brooklyn matchup will now take place in consolation game
By Adam Zagoria / SNY.tv
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Jose Rodriguez and the Ravens are heading to Saturday night's final. (Christina Santucci)

NEW YORK -- There will be an All-Brooklyn matchup in the SNY Invitational, but it wont happen in the championship game as many had expected.

St. Raymond of The Bronx stunned Boys & Girls of Brooklyn 60-54 in the second game of the doubleheader at NYU's Coles Center and will face Mount Vernon of Westchester in Saturday night's title game at 8 p.m. on SNY.

"They better come ready, thats all I got to say," St. Ray's senior guard Tyreak Johnson said of the Knights.

Boys & Girls (14-5) will face Thomas Jefferson (14-5) for the third time this season when they square off in the consolation game at 6. Jefferson won the first two.

Boys & Girls entered the St. Rays game as a heavy favorite because it reached the PSAL championship game at Madison Square Garden in each of the last two years and also recently notched a victory over Lance Stephenson and Lincoln.

Instead, the Ravens (10-5) got a stellar effort from 6-foot-8, 200-pound sophomore forward Sidiki Johnson, who posted a double-double of 11 points and 18 rebounds. Junior guard Harold McBride added 17 points and senior guard Kareem Bernard tallied 12.

"Its huge," said St. Rays coach Oliver Antigua, whose team won despite committing 24 turnovers. "They were one of the top teams in the city. They're a great team. They're a senior team. They have a lot of experienced, veteran guys. Thats a huge win for us."

Boys & Girls cut a seven-point second-half deficit to 55-54 on a basket by Michael Taylor with 1:16 remaining.

But the Ravens closed the game on a 5-0 spurt, getting all five points from McBride, who scored on a driving layup and then made three of his last four foul shots. Boys & Girls failed to score over the final 1:16.

"Harold really stepped up big time and made clutch free throws," Johnson said. "It was on tonight." St. Rays made 17-of-27 from the foul line, while Boys & Girls managed just 2-of-10.

"I thought our offense was a little too staggered and we turned the ball over a little bit too much," Kangaroos coach Ruth Lovelace said.

Johnson was a huge factor inside for St. Rays because the Kangaroos simply had no one to match his size. He scored on a putback of his own miss to put the Ravens up 52-49 after Boys & Girls cut it to 50-49.

"I just went out there and played hard," Johnson said. "I had them by like two or three inches, so it really didn't matter."

Senior point guard Lamount Samuell led Boys & Girls with 15 points on 7-of-16 shooting and Leroy Isler added 10.

Taylor, a sharpshooting sophomore who holds offers from St. Johns, Rutgers and Virginia Tech and has interest from Pitt, could not find his shot and finished with eight points on 3-of-18 shooting, including 2-of-10 from beyond the 3-point line.

"He wanted it so bad, but I thought he forced a couple of shots," Lovelace said. "But I think he's young and he's got to learn from that. They did a great job of edging out on him and making him work for everything he got."

Next up for the Kangaroos is another date with Jefferson.

"It's just the way it is," Lovelace said. "We didn't handle business. They didn't handle business, so we have to play them in the consolation game. It's Round Three."

As for the Ravens, they get a date with Mount Vernon senior star Sherrod Wright, who poured in 32 points in his teams victory over Jefferson.

"Sherrod is one of the top players in the area," Antigua said. "He's a handful. We're going to have to play well. But our kids are coming to play with house money. We're in the championship game on TV. What the heck, we're going to have fun."

Adam Zagoria is a regular contributor to SNY.tv. Read his blog at ZagsBlog.com.
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