St. Viator takes tourney title

When the shots aren’t falling, good teams still find a way to win.

St. Viator made a case that it belongs in that category as the Lions held off Conant 56-45 to capture their own tournament championship Saturday night.

Conant (2-2) took second courtesy of a tiebreaker.

“That’s what we set out to do,” said St. Viator senior Danny Forde. “We wanted to lay down the hammer and start the season out right.”

The Lions won despite shooting 30 percent (6-for-20) on 3s and 33 percent (17-for-51) overall.

“We took a lot of 3s that weren’t going down tonight,” said St. Viator coach Mike Howland. “I was real happy that at the end of the day, it was our defense that won us the game. We talked a lot about when the shots aren’t falling, we have to rely on our defense, and we did a good job of that tonight.”

Conant led 13-9 early in the second quarter but St. Viator went on an 11-0 run in which Kevin Walsh scored 6 of his team-high 14 points.

Trailing 31-19 at halftime, the Cougars methodically cut into the lead in the third quarter with a 12-3 run spanning 5:53. D’Angelo McBride started the run with a layup before Josh Copher (team-high 14 points) scored the last 10 points.

But the Lions had the answer.

Walsh stopped the run with a basket, Forde (10 points) got a steal and a layup, Chris Myjak tipped in a missed layup and then found D.J. Morris (12 points) in the corner for a 3-pointer.

Just like that, a 3-point lead turned back into a comfortable 12-point cushion for the Lions.

“Once we got it got it together, everything went pretty smooth from there,” Forde said.

Conant committed 20 turnovers and shot 30 percent (12-for-40) from the field.

“If we come in even on that, those turnovers turn into shots and maybe it’s a different story,” said Conant coach Tom McCormack. “Right now we like where we are at defensively, but offensively we still have a ways to go.”

Sean Bourke had 8 points for Conant while Kevin Schimel added 7.

Ore Arogundade scored 12 points and was one of 4 double-digit scorers for the Lions. And it was Arogundade who put the exclamation point on a perfect week with a thunderous one-handed slam plus a foul that brought the home fans to their feet.

“It’s an exciting start and we are hoping that it is the first of many more championships that we win this year,” Howland said.