(Daquan Hunt rises up for St. Mary's to throw down. #BOOM)
Saturday afternoon games tend to lack a certain luster. Whether it's the time of day or playing on a non-school day, the atmosphere and intensity just don't seem to be there like a weeknight game provides. But when you take the Section's largest district and send them over to play the private school that cuts into their enrollment, there's a lot of interested spectators.
A standing room only crowd watched as St. Mary's and Lancaster went back-and-forth for four quarters, ending in 61-60 victory for the Lancers that was secured in the closing seconds. St. Mary's improves to 10-3 overall, while the Legends slip to 9-6 on the year and see their five-game win streak come to an end.
With just seven seconds left in the game and St. Mary's trailing by two points, Eric Brown let a long 3-pointer fly over his defender and drilled it for what would be the game-winner. The Lancers still had two fouls to give and used them to disrupt the final seconds that remained. An inbound pass was stolen with three seconds left to seal the win.
"I didn't think about it, I just shot," said Brown.
As for the feeling as the shot dropped through the net..."Everything just went blank and I put my hands up," Brown said.
Brown and Christian Szablewski each scored a game-high 17 points for the Lancers in the win. Szablewski connected on a bomb with 1:28 left in the game to get his team within two points.
"We needed them," said St. Mary's coach Paul Rath. "I was thinking it would be a tight game coming in. They're more physical than us...I'm glad our shooters showed up today, maybe teams won't play a zone against us anymore."
The Lancers got in front early in the game and maintained a lead for nearly the entire first half. A great behind-the-back pass from Brown to Szablewski for a finish midway through the second quarter gave St. Mary's a 29-24 lead. However, Lancaster was able to take a 33-31 lead heading into the break with a 9-2 run to close the half.
Lancester got a pair of 3-pointers from Vito Fulciniti as part of a 12-2 spurt in the third quarter and took the largest lead either team would own at 45-35. Daquan Hunt and Matt Ciezki closed the frame with scores to cut the Lancaster lead to six heading into the fourth quarter.
The Legends lead stretched back to seven points early in the fourth, 49-42, as the momentum continued to shift from team to team. Following a technical foul call, St. Mary's put together an 11-2 stretch and regained the edge, 53-51, with 4:26 left.
"It was a really fun game to be a part of," said Rath.
The Legends took their turn again, as Fulciniti nailed his fourth 3-pointer of the afternoon to take the lead back. Baskets by Jakob Jerebko and a pair from LG Castillo accounted for the 9-2 run that made the score 60-55 in Lancaster's favor with just 1:42 left on the clock, setting up the late game heroics of Brown & Szablewski.
"You schedule these games to be better for the playoffs," Lancaster coach John Otto said. "I think this game will help both teams, you just feel bad for some of these kids when they try as hard as they did. The effort was definitely there - we left it all on the court."
Ciezki finished with 16 points for St. Mary's, that included a pair from downtown in the final frame.
Fulciniti, Castillo, and Jerebko each scored 12 points apiece for the Legends in the loss, while Connor Duck added 11 points.
St. Mary's is back in action on Wednesday with a visit to Canisius, while Lancaster is off next week. The Legends resume play on February 2nd against Clarence.
Lancaster 17 - 16 - 12 - 15 = 60
St. Mary's 22 - 9 - 8 - 22 = 61
Point Totals
St. Mary's: Eric Brown 17, Christian Szablewski 17, Matt Cieszki 16, Daquan Hunt 6, Collin Tytka 3, Frank Propis 2
Lancaster: LG Castillo 12, Vito Fulciniti 12, Jakob Jerebko 12, Connor Duck 11, Tim Molik 6, Noah Speyer 4, Alec Tamburri 3
- centercourt
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