Christian Brothers Academy junior Max Weaver goes to the rim against Christ the King in a Class AA Federation Tournament of Champions semifinal game Saturday at the Glens Falls Civic Center. (Photos by Ed Burke, The Saratogian, for The Record).

Christ the King held off a ferocious second half rally by Christian Brothers Academy to post a 63-60 Class AA semifinal victory in the Federation Tournament of Champions Saturday afternoon at the Glens Falls Civic Center.

Despite a valiant comeback effort, CBA fell just short in Saturday's game against Christ the King.

CBA's Big Three - Kam Ritter, Galal Cancer and Max Weaver - were all in foul trouble of some sort during the game, which forced CBA's bench into action. The reserves held their own, but they just didn't provide the scoring spark the Brothers starters did all year long.

Christ the King's big first half lead held just long enough.

“I think our team did a great job,” said CBA senior Kam Ritter. “I think our bench came in – (Christ the King) had us by 12 at the half - and I think they did a great job of keeping it to 12. Coach told us we had to pull up our britches at halftime and I think we did. We just fell short.”

CBA's Jack Reilly (left) and Josh Dennis (right) collapse on Christ the King's Roland Brown (25) during their Class AA Federation Tournament semifinal in Glens Falls.

Ritter, who sat out for an eight-minute span in the second half with four personal fouls, scored 17 points. Junior point guard Galal Cancer scored 19 for the Brothers, but their three-point shooting game, which carried them all season, just didn't materialize Saturday afternoon. Six different Brothers made threes in the game, but with no consistent rhythm, CBA was never able to hold a lead.

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One must give CBA head coach Dave Doemel a lot of credit for the best season by a team in school history. While he has plenty of talent to go ga-ga over, he also got a great deal of effort out of a deep bench and a couple of role-playing starters.

CBA's Taylor Mulvey takes the ball to the basket and draws a foul on Dominykas Milka (40) of Christ The King. Mulvey couldn't get the ball to fall, but he converted two free throws.

Josh Dennis and Jack Reilly never scored many points, but they were always doing the little things that helped the Brothers win ballgames all year long.

Players like Chaz Lott, Joe Krong, Dan Cusato, Taylor Mulvey and Christian Signor never got a great deal of minutes, but they all put in big-time efforts night-in and night-out. Not many teams reach the Federation Tournament by going 10 deep, but that's exactly the formula that worked for CBA in 2009-10.

With players like Cancer, Weaver and Krong coming back, the Brothers should also be making plenty of noise in the years to come.