Broken bone in his hand sidelines Carroll guard Irving

As it turned out, the cracking noise was a dead giveaway.

DJ Irving, star point guard for Archbishop Carroll High's basketball team, did suffer a broken bone in his right hand during Wednesday night's Catholic League semifinal at the Palestra, won by the Patriots, 51-47, over La Salle.

The second of two X-rays confirmed it, Irving said yesterday.

Irving, who lives in Chester, said he stopped at Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park Wednesday night while headed home and was told he had suffered a bad sprain and would be wise to remain idle for 4 days; Carroll's meeting with Ss. Neumann-Goretti for the CL title is Monday, 8 p.m., at the Palestra.

Yesterday morning, Irving and his mother, figuring it would be wise to get a second opinion from an organization familiar with sports-oriented injuries, drove to Fort Washington to visit one of Temple's Sports Medicine Centers.

"They took another X-ray and said I have a cracked bone," said Irving, a Boston University signee. "It's right below my middle finger. They put on a hard cast and they said it has to be on for 2 weeks. I guess the first X-ray didn't catch it because my hand was still so swollen. I put a lot of ice on it overnight and today.

"I'm real disappointed. To the point I want to cry. I talked to my teammates, and especially Juan'ya [Green, star junior guard], about how they'll all have to step up. I'm confident we can still win the game. And I'll be there cheering, trying to help us do that."

Irving departed 5:48 before halftime, then reappeared with 6:03 left in the third quarter. He finished with 13 points. His only basket post-injury was a big steal-layup combo accomplished with his left hand.

"I kind of knew the injury was something bad," he said. "Usually I'll just shake things off. This was different. I couldn't grip the ball."

Carroll, the defending AAA champion, can still earn a trip to the state playoffs, which this year extend to the last weekend of March. So it's possible we'll see him again.

"That's what I'm hoping," he said. *