St. Patrick turns back Hersey
Last year, St. Patrick and Hersey met for third place at the second annual Kurland/Schnurr Thankgiving tournament at Niles West, with the Shamrocks winning.
Both teams have since upgraded, and this year the two storied programs met for the championship Saturday afternoon.
It was deja vu all over again as St. Patrick tamed the Huskies 59-39.
"It just seemed like we didn't come to play," said all-tournament selection Payton Haas. "We had really played well in our first three games."
The Shamrocks (4-0) broke out to a 9-0 lead before settling for a 16-4 lead after one quarter. Andy Velazquez, Sean Ek (11 points) and Adrian Pierzchaowski all hit 3-pointers in the quarter.
Josh Mailloux (10 points) and sophomore Joe Coffaro (8 points, 5 rebounds) each scored on putbacks to cut the St. Pat lead to 16-8 with 6:40 left in the first half.
Hersey, though, scored just 5 points the rest of the quarter and found themselves down 26-13 at the break.
St. Patrick came out strong in the third quarter building a 44-23 lead with 2:27 left in the quarter. Velazquez, who led all scorers with 15 points and 6 rebounds, scored 6 points in the run, as did Duncan White (13 points, 5 rebounds).
"We struggled with their zone to start the game," said Hersey coach Steve Messer. "We spun our wheels at times. You can't do that against good teams."
The 3-1 Huskies did get a little fire going when Haas, who scored all his 11 points in the second half, connected on three 3s to get Hersey within 49-32 going into the fourth quarter.
Two baskets by Josh Mailloux started a 7-2 run to pull the Huskies to within 51-39 with 4:12 left. Hersey got the ball right back with a chance to cut the lead to 10 or less but turned the ball over.
That's all the Shamrocks needed.
St. Patrick righted the ship by hitting 6 of 8 free throws in an 8-0 run to close out the win.
"We knew that they would make a run at us sometime during the game," said St. Patrick coach Mike Bailey. "They are a good team. We just had to weather the storm."
Nicholas Coleman (6 points, 6 assists) earned tournament MVP honors for St. Patrick.
"We had to be able to take away their 3-point game," said Coleman, "and keep Mailloux off the boards. Had we not started out quickly, it would have been a much closer game."
Messer was pleased with the team's overall start.
"We shared the ball in all the games very well," said Messer. "There's a few things we have to work on. When things start getting tight, we have to communicate better on the floor. Mailloux rebounded well in all four games. We just have to get others involved."
Haas saw a silver lining.
"I was concerned about our defense but each game it got better," said Haas. "Even though we got beat badly tonight, we never gave up and we kept playing good defense. We'll just have to work a little harder this week to prepare for Prospect."
Joe Coffaro and Max Heeren were voted to the all tournament team for Hersey.