Saints can't overcome Boatright's 32

St. Charles East's boys basketball team is a bit like one of those gigantic puzzles you might buy at a garage sale at the moment.

There is certainly a lot of effort put into the final result, so many of the pieces are there and there are areas where everything looks terrific.

But there always seems to be a piece or two that's missing.

The Saints fell for the sixth time in as many tries this season with Friday's 72-63 home defeat by East Aurora.

But the Upstate Eight Conference game was nearly dead-even midway through the third quarter and not decided until the early portion of the fourth. The Saints (0-6, 0-2) played a solid zone against the Tomcats (4-2, 1-0), shot decently from the field and had a hot-handed player in Matt Jurewicz, who finished with 21 points.

But East Aurora had Ryan Boatright, who lit up the Saints for a game-high 32 points and was there time and again to apply a killing shot when the Saints least afforded it.

"It comes down to stops, and Boatright obviously had a big night," St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi said. "It was the end of the quarters - every quarter."

Boatright hit a 3-pointer at the close of the first quarter, was fouled and hit a pair of free throws with 0.3 left in the first half and nailed a 3-pointer as time expired in the third quarter - 8 points the Saints weren't able to match because the quarter was over.

"That gave them momentum at the end of every quarter," Clodi said. "He had 15 at the end of the first half, and we said that he can't get looks. He just took over the game and they made more plays than us."

But for the points Boatright scored, he never worked out of the Tomcats' patterned offense.

"Today, I played my role and then caught fire," Boatright said. "I caught fire and was in the zone after that."

At one point, Boatright hit four straight shots, three 3-pointers and a slam dunk.

"Overall, it was a team effort," Boatright said. "I couldn't have done it without the team. Coach (Wendell Jeffries) preached at us to not rush the tempo."

Still, the Saints had the game at 39-39 with 5 minutes left when Jurewicz hit a 3-pointer. East Aurora surged at that point, built a 9-point lead by the end of the third quarter and extended that margin to a killing 15 points 2 minutes into the fourth quarter.

"Our kids feel like we can play," Clodi said. "We had a starter go down in the first seconds. He adds a lot for us. We got good looks. I felt we needed to have kept the ball more. But when they're pressuring us and making us make decisions, that's not always the easiest thing to do."

That starter was Phil Kohlhagen, who suffered a facial injury in the opening seconds of the game and was unable to continue. In addition to Jurewicz, St. Charles East got a big game from Kevin Senechalle, who had 14 points and 12 rebounds.