St. Joe's and Canisius each won convincingly in the semifinals on Saturday night at Canisius College's Koessler Center. That sets up a round three rubber match for WNY's biggest high school basketball rivalry. The co-champions and archrivals of the Monsignor Martin Athletic Association split regular season meetings and needed a coin toss to determine its seeding for the Manhattan Cup tournament. But after Wednesday night, one of them will be crowned the Manhattan Cup champions and we will finally know who the top dog of the catholic league is for the 2010-2011 season. Who will it be? Anyone have a coin?
Aaron Nevins poured in a game-high 24 points to lead the top seeded Crusaders to a 70-46 win against St. Mary's. Leading by two points in the final minute of the first quarter, Canisius got a deep 3-pointer from Matt Hart to take a 21-16 lead after one. The Crusaders quickly stretched the lead to 27-17 after a pair of long range bombs from Matt MacDonald in the first minute of the second quarter and never looked back after that.
St. Joe's got a game-high 20 points from Chad Kelly and 15 points from Connor Rehbaum as they advanced to the championship game with a 73-58 victory against Timon-St. Jude. When 6-7 Marauder Reggie Agbeko immediately left the game after landing awkwardly following the game's opening tip, many including myself, had to be wondering if St. Joe's season was just under 32 minutes from ending. But after an exciting first quarter that ended with the Marauders trailing by two, they surged past the Tigers with a 23-7 run over the next 11 minutes. St. Joe's received key contributions from Jake Spitler and A. Keith Louie in the win.
It will be the first time since 2006 that the rivals will face off for the Manhattan Cup. St. Joe's won that year, 67-53. In 2005, the Crusaders defeated the Marauders in the championship game, 58-47. Each team has won one additional Manhattan Cup since the '06 season.
-centercourt
I brought my ten year old daughter to the semifinal games tonight. It was the first time she has gone to a game with me in a few years, because she's had no interest in going. At the beginning of the evening, I explained that there would be two games, and that the winners would play for the championship on Wednesday.
When I said goodnight to her, I thanked her for going with me tonight. She said she had a really good time and was glad she went. Then when I was leaving her room, she said "now I just really want to watch St. Joe's play Canisius". Me too!
All it took was a seat at center court.
Posted by: centercourt | Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 12:38 AM
I hate to disagree with my friend. However, disagree I must!! It wasn't the seat at centercourt that did it for her. It was the seat right next to Centercourt that did it!! Thanks for sharing. A nice story.
Kudos to St. Joe's on a dominating win without their big man. Just shows how deep and resilient they are. Gonna be a tough out I'm guessing.
Hoping for a great game Wednesday night. The MMAA has been anti climatic this year. No surprises. No upsets. Not much excitement other than the Timon/Joe's game @ Timon and the Canisius/Joe's game @ Joe's. Hope the rubber match makes up for the lack of excitement during the regular season.
Good luck to coaches Husband, Simon, their staffs and of course the players.
Posted by: hoopster | Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 11:04 AM
Game preview:
http://www.buffalosportsdaily.com/preview-stjoes-canisius/
Posted by: Patrick Moran | Wednesday, March 02, 2011 at 04:08 PM