St. Francis falters against St. Ignatius

St. Francis brought its "A.M." game to York on Monday unfortunately, not its "A" game.

"We didn't have the energy," coach Shawn Healy said after St. Ignatius beat the Spartans 60-45 in consolation bracket action at the 36th annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic.

St. Francis (3-7) led St. Ignatius 15-7 at one point during the first quarter before three-time Tosh champion St. Ignatius (5-5) chipped away.

"I told the kids, we didn't have the energy when we had shootaround this morning," Healy said. "So I think some of this was just brought upon at 9 o'clock this morning before the game even started."

Already challenged with 6-foot-4 St. Francis sophomore Ryan Coyle out, a cast protecting his right thumb - he suffered either strained or torn ligaments, Healy said, and doctors won't know if he can play again this season until they examine the hand Jan. 13 - the Spartans were outsize by Ignatius' 6-9 Nnanna Egwu and 6-4 Tyrone Staggers against 6-3 Joe Pfeiffer and Dave Spahn, the latter a guard.

St. Ignatius guard Brian Howard stretched the defense thinner with two first-quarter 3's to trim the deficit. Staggers' 9-point second quarter helped the Wolfpack post a 32-26 halftime lead.

"Offensively we got stagnant, we weren't cutting hard enough, we weren't screening hard enough and we were turning the ball over on several different runs. Against a team like St. Ignatius we just can't do that," Healy said.

Pfeiffer and Spahn scored St. Francis' only third quarter points, all 5 of them, and St. Ignatius went into the fourth leading 47-31.

Staggers and Egwu - who scored a respective 19 and 10 points, Howard scoring 13 - gave the Wolfpack a 20-point margin early in the fourth quarter.

Mark Schmitt's late surge - a layup while fouled, and then 5 more quick points for a team-high 14, ahead of Pfeiffer's 10 - got the Spartans closer but not quite where Healy wants them to be.

"Our effort is there," he said. "The mental side of it and our execution just aren't."