St. Viator finds shooting touch against Prospect
St. Viator's boys basketball team shot down Prospect 56-45 Wednesday in the second round of the 39th annual Joe Majkowski Thanksgiving tournament at St. Viator.
Viator nailed 10 consecutive field goals in a stretch that covered nearly eight minutes. And with the defense stiffening up during that span, the Lions scored 15 unanswered points to pull away.
"It was a great group effort," said the Lions' Jake Stepuszek, who began the 15-point streak with a 3-point basket and finished it with a short jumper. "Coach always preaches help-side defense, and we kind of got back to that. We were starting to attack and kick to the open man on offense."
St. Viator was able to open up each of the first two quarters with an 8-0 run. That enabled the Lions to build a 22-12 advantage with 3:9 left in the first half.
Prospect, which had hit 4 field goals up to that point, finally began to find its range. The Knights closed out the half with an 8-0 run of their own, thanks to 3-point field goals by Matt Szuba and a buzzer-beater by Frankie Mack to pull to 24-22 at the break.
After St. Viator extended its lead to 31-26, Prospect again found its game.
Led by Mack, who finished with 19 points and and Szuba, who had 8 points, the Knights rallied to take a 35-33 lead.
"We got into some foul trouble and they took advantage of it," St. Viator coach Quin Hayes said. "It stole our momentum a little bit. But once we got going, we were able to get back in the game."
Trailing 35-33 with 1:52 left in the third quarter, St. Viator took command.
The Lions moved the ball well, finding open shots - and no one benefitted more than Danny Walsh. The senior, who had missed 3 previous 3-point shots, found his range, netting a pair from outside the arc.
"I got a little help from our strength and conditioning coach Richard McLaughlin," Walsh said. "He said my feet were kicking out, so I kept them in. I got a couple of good passes and made the shots."
St. Viator (2-0) which shot 53 percent (21 of 40), held Prospect to 25 percent (5 of 20) shooting in the second half and 28 percent (12 of 43) for the game.
"We were a little lax on defense at times and let them back in the game," said Kevin Murphy, who finished with 12 points. "But we picked things up when we needed to."
Stepuszek led the Lions with 14 points while Walsh and Kyle Hammarlund each had 8 points and Matt Trimburger had 6 points and 6 rebounds.
"They came out with that tough 1-3-1 and it is a tough defense to play against," Hayes said. "We were patient. We made the right reads and got great looks. Honestly, I just think we knocked them down in the second half."
Prospect coach John Camardella said that despite the loss, his team is moving forward.
"We came out flat and got blitzed early," Camardella said. "We were able to rally for a bit. We are still trying to put the pieces together together."