BY MARCUS HENRY
The Long Island Lutheran boy's basketball team has every reason to keep their head up. Yes, they lost by 17 to St.Anthony (NJ), the No.1 team in USA Today's Super 25 Poll. But the Friars (22-0) haven't won by less than 20 points all season. In fact, only 5 of their wins were by less than 30 points. After the game coach Bob Hurley said it was the closest game they've had in a long time. He said he liked what the Crusaders did on offense and added they were an "excellent" team.
Make no mistake about it, though, the Friars are a great team. Six of their players are headed to Division I schools. And a seventh, Dominic Cheek, is a junior who is being recruited by North Carolina. You can't get much better than that.
"We couldn't hit our open shots," Lutheran coach Brian Carey said after the game. "But that team is quick."
Carey was right on the money with that assessment as the Crusaders strugged early. In fact, Jeriel Henriquez scored all of Lutheran's 11 points in the first quarter. Richie Harkins began to find his stroke in the second and third quarters.
There were no moral victories for Henriquez, but he did say a game like that could help the program's profile. "It would've been a great win," he said.
Lutheran proved a lot. It proved it could play with just about anyone. And the Crusaders also proved they aren't a group that gets intimidated.
Any who missed the game can catch it on the web at http://sportswebnet.com/ beginning 7 p.m. Friday night. It's a great opportunity to see Lutheran for the first time and St. Anthony. It's not often that Long Island gets the No.1 boy's team in the country to come here.