By BEN BASKIN
Special to ZAGSBLOG
NEW YORK — With just under two minutes left to play in Christ the King’s 67-49 home win over rival Bishop-Loughlin on Sunday afternoon, 6-foot-11 center Adonis Delarosa caught the ball on the left wing, about 18 feet away from the basket.
He then made a quick crossover dribble from right to left, blowing right by his man, and exploded to the hoop for a ferocious two-handed slam.
Bishop-Loughlin then quickly inbounded the ball and rushed it ahead, hoping to beat the defense down the court. Delarosa, all 267 pounds of him, immediately sprinted towards the hoop and exploded into the air, swatting the ensuing lay-up attempt into the crowd. And although the play was ruled a goaltend, the home crowd was stirred into a frenzy as Delarosa let out a feral scream, a rare sign of emotion from the phlegmatic big man.
“I think that right there was the dagger, I think that finished them,” Delarosa said after posting 23 points on 6-for-11 shooting, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks with South Carolina head coach Frank Martin watching at Christ the King.
And with that two-play sequence, it was easy to see why the senior recruit is so highly coveted.
“[Today] was the best I’ve ever seen him play,” said Tom Konchalski, the renowned NYC talent evaluator. “They did not have any answer for him. He ran the court harder….He was terrific today. He was the difference in the game.”
While Delarosa was held to only three points in the first half — as Bishop-Loughlin constantly double- and triple-teamed him in the post — he did not allow his early lack of offensive production to stop him from having an impact on the game.
“I knew if I couldn’t contribute by putting up points, I knew I could do other things like block shots or grab every rebound to help my team win,” Delarosa said.
The second half was a different story offensively, as Delarosa demanded the ball on the block and poured in 20 points, many of them coming in a crucial sequence in the fourth quarter when Christ the King was holding on to a dwindling lead.
“I told [Delarosa] at halftime the driving lanes were there for our guards but your time is going to come,” Christ the King coach Joe Arbitello said. “And then when it was his time to go, he went and he finished the game.”
It was as good a time as any for Delarosa to have such a dominant game, as
Martin was in the crowd to watch the big man play.
“I didn’t even know he was here, I was just playing my game,” Delarosa said.
South Carolina is part of a four-school list that Delarosa enumerated as those that had been recruiting him the hardest. The others, he said, are St. Johns, Fordham, and Pittsburgh.
Importantly, Delarosa has recently taken the SAT’s, which now means he is able to take official school visits, which he said he plans on doing in late February.
“At this point I’m open to everybody,” Delarosa said. “I just want to be at a place that wants me and that needs me.”
Delarosa is an imposing physical specimen on the court, and is still working to get into better shape for the college game. He weighed in at 330 last season, and is now all the way down to 267 and seems to have much better conditioning. He said that before next season starts, wherever he ends up, he wants to weigh-in at 250 and get his “body toned up.”
“Conditioning is the key,” Konchalski said. “As long as he gets in the best shape he can, he’s going to be a terrific college player.”
