ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Joe Fama has to push through the Archbishop Williams defense to reach the hoop.
By KATIE MORRISON
With .8 seconds left on the clock, Archbishop Williams’ Brian Keating received a pass in the corner and launched a three-pointer to seal the Bishops’ 57-55 victory over St. Mary’s on Friday night at the Tony Conigliaro gym.
It was a fast and furious, back-and-forth game all night long. The Spartans held a lead as big as six points going into the fourth quarter, but couldn’t put the Bishops away.
“(We played) very selfish basketball tonight,” said St. Mary’s coach Dave Brown. “Offensively and defensively, we just didn’t compete like we should. I told these guys on any given night, anyone can win a game of basketball, so if you’re not playing as a team, the better team isn’t going to win. I thought we were the better team, but obviously that didn’t show in the final score.”
The Spartans jumped out to an early 12-8 lead in the first thanks to two threes and a layup from Calvin Johnson and a layup through traffic from Joe Fama.
A foul plus a technical on the Williams coach resulted in four free throws for the Spartans, and Mike Cerulli went 3-for-4 from the line to give the Spartans a 7-point lead heading into the second quarter.
Williams came back in the second quarter and took the lead late in the half, but St. Mary’s tied it back up, 34-34, as Cerulli hit a three at the buzzer.
The pace of the game didn’t let up in the third quarter, and Fama got the scoring started as he intercepted a pass under the hoop while playing full-court defense on the Bishops and laid it in for two points.
Williams grabbed a 40-37 lead toward the end of the quarter but the Spartans went on a 9-point run. Matt Cross blew past the defense on a breakaway and sunk a layup, and Curtis High hit two free throws. Jonathan Mola hit a three from the corner, and Fama grabbed a rebound and put it back at the buzzer to give the Spartans a 46-40 lead.
The Bishops clawed back into the game in the fourth, and with 40 seconds left, the Spartans held a one-point lead.
The Spartans tried to slow the game down and run out the shot clock. Johnson took a shot from the top of the key that bounced off the backboard, and the Bishops picked up the rebound, setting the stage for Keating’s dramatic three.
High tried to launch a shot from around half court to beat the buzzer, but the shot bounced hard off the backboard, sealing the Spartans’ fate.
“We didn’t have a good showing as a unit tonight, some people got rattled at times,” said Brown. “We didn’t get good shots when we needed to, execution wasn’t there. I’ve got to put it on the coaching staff, we go over sets in practice and we’re going through the motions, and tonight shows you can’t turn it off and on. You have to go full speed in practice, because come game time, it can come back to haunt you, and it did tonight.”
Johnson was the Spartans’ top scorer with 13 points. Fama added 10, Mola chipped in with nine, and High contributed eight.
Katie Morrison can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @KatieMo61.
