St. Mary's 68, Nichols 60
Paul Rath led four Lancers in double figures with a team-high 16 points, and with his teammates, played a third straight inspired game to move past Nichols in the quarterfinal round of the Manhattan Cup playoffs. With the victory, St. Mary’s advances to the state Catholic Class B championship game as the representative from the Monsignor Martin Association, played at Fordham University on March 9th. But first they attempt to advance to a second straight Manhattan Cup final when they face Canisius this Sunday at 6 pm.
Nichols was led by a game-high 17 points from sophomore Chris Miner, while senior Liam Ryan scored 16 points in his final game. After dropping a lopsided contest to St. Mary's less than a week earlier, the Vikings definitely came to play in the postseason.
After racing out to a 12-1 lead in the game, it looked like things had picked up right where they left off. Then with 2:38 remaining in the opening stanza, Tom Nuttle dropped a '3' to get the Vikings offense started. Trailing 21-13 after one quarter, Nichols came back to tie the game at 25 each in the second quarter with 3-pointers from Nuttle & Ryan, and a pair of inside buckets from Miner. The final three minutes of the first half belonged to St. Mary's, as they outscored Nichols 10-1 to take a 35-26 lead at the break.
Midway through the third quarter and still facing a nine-point deficit, 3-pointers from Ryan sandwiched a 12-0 Nichols run that gave them the first scoreboard advantage of the evening, 44-41. With Vikings fans going ballistic and the bench on their feet cheering in response to the team's first lead, Rath busted from long range to bring the remainder of fans into a frenzy, and send his Lancers into the final quarter where they had began the game...all knotted up.
Lucas Schaffer banged a '3' to start the fourth, making it 47-44, Lancers lead. Cam Lewis hit a pair of free throws on separate trips to the line, followed by a Miner basket, giving Nichols the lead back at 48-47.
With under six minutes remaining in the game, Rath's conversion of a traditional three-point play ignited a 12-0 erruption from the Lancers. Junior Dion Strong scored six of his 12 points the scoring spurt that built his team's lead 59-48, matching the largest advantage of the game. Adam Noonan scored seven points for Nichols over the final three minutes in a furious attempt to rally his team, but the Vikings could never get any closer than three points the rest of the way.
Tyler English finished with 12 points on the evening for St. Mary's, while Cory Kiebzak scored 10 points.
Canisius 85, St. Francis 59
The Crusaders looked the part of the top seed from the opening tip as they were out in front over the Red Raiders, 16-2, just midway into the opening quarter. A total of 13 players scored for Canisius in the win, with its starters seeing limited minutes once the discrepancy on the scoreboard grew. St. Francis was led by junior Sam Utley’s 11 points, while Maurice Burse, Treyvon Holness, and Cory Cullen each scored 10 points.
St. Joe's 77, Archbishop Walsh 59
Mark Cerza led the Marauders with 17 points, while Jaylen Morris and Louie Oliveri each added 16 points. Jake Chapman had 21 points for Walsh in the loss.
Timon/St. Jude 74, Niagara Catholic 49
Donte Williams had a game-high 17 points to lead the Tigers, Damone Harris scored 13 points, Manny Welch netted 12 points, and Derick Simpson added 11 points. Also, senior Ryan Dougherty stepped onto the court for the first time all season and scored two points, after tearing his ACL during football in the fall. After leading by 12 at halftime, Timon put the game out of reach with a 23-4 third quarter to end Niagara Catholic's season. Andrew Adamson led the Patriots ith 15 points, while Johnathan Jackson scored 14 points.
-centercourt
Comments