Smith and Jones lead Christ the King past South Shore

Lovell Smith scored 20 points and Sterling Jones added 19, leading Christ the King to an impressive 71-61 home win over defending PSAL AA champs South Shore in the finale of the Apparel Challenge in Middle Village on Sunday. 

The Royals and the Vikings went punch for punch for three quarters, but Christ the King pulled away early in the fourth, thanks to an offensive spurt engineered by Smith, Jones and Ryan Myers, with the trio combining for 19 of CTK's 24 fourth quarter points, including timely triples by Smith and Myers.

Dontae Prescott scored 19 points for South Shore despite being hampered with foul trouble for most of the second half, eventually whistled for his fifth personal late in the fourth on a call that triggered a bench technical on the Vikings. Things got testy after that, with the Royals getting to the line for 15 attempts in the final frame, converting 12.

Prescott was the only South Shore player in double figures, with Marcus Burnett and Ziare Wells registering 9 points each and Dakhari Lewis scoring 8 for the Vikings.

Christ the King improved its overall record to 8-8, and the Royals have now won 6 of their last 7 games.

South Shore, Brooklyn Collegiate and Boys & Girls are currently deadlocked atop the PSAL Brooklyn AA standings, all three teams with a league record of 10-3. The Vikings close out their league schedule on Tuesday when they will visit Canarsie.

Christ the King and South Shore were both semifinalists in last year's New York State Federation tournament, both ousted by eventual champion Long Island Lutheran. The Vikings fell in the semifinals while the Royals dropped the championship game after a win over NYSPHSAA champions West Genesee in the semifinals.

Video Highlights

* This post has been updated to correct the final score to 71-61. An earlier version of this post referred to the final score as 61-51.