ARYEE LEADS ST. MARY’S BOYS HOOPS TO VICTORY
Majority of game-high 22 points come from seven baskets in five minutes
As he rode the waves rolling St. Mary’s way, Jacob Aryee felt particularly inspired, even though he’d never take the credit himself.
Even after his second 3-pointer, his seventh basket in five minutes, Aryee said he couldn’t have sparked the rally over Indian Creek that sealed the 60-53 victory on Monday night — at least, not without his teammates.
After making just one basket in the first half, Aryee went ballistic, piling up 18 of his game-high 22 points in the final two quarters.
“My teammates, they were back there, backing me,” Aryee said. “They were telling me to keep shooting, so I had to keep going.”
There’s different leaders every night, Saints coach Trey Quinn said, and that’s what’s impressed him the most about his Saints this winter.
“The takeaway for me is progress, top to bottom, being able to trust different guys at different times,” the coach said.
Until Aryee and the Saints kicked it up a notch, the teams’ shared possession of the lead all game long. Shots and dribbles just seemed to get lost in blackhole defenses until the ball would come hurtling the opposite direction in the other team’s hands after turnovers or defensive rebounds.
Few Saints and Eagles made sense of that tangle, but St. Mary’s managed to eke out an 11-10 advantage after one quarter thanks to Grady Wolfe’s 3-pointer — the first of the game — right at the buzzer.
The Eagles’ Kendall Crawford (11 points) hit his own shot from downtown and followed with a hook shot to open another quarter with more knots than earphones taken out of a pocket. Both teams’ offenses tried to score in transition, just to outrun the defenses that’d been gobbling up drives, and lead changes were attained as often at the free-throw line as in the paint.
Junior Josh Leedy (12 points) took the reins in the last few minutes of the second quarter to put in two layups and a free throw, placing the Eagles in prime position to keep its lead. Junior Daniel Ablorh’s free throws at the end of the half secured the slight upper-hand, 27-25.
Each side heard the chirp of the referee’s whistle more in the second quarter, but Indian Creek thrived where St. Mary’s starved. The Eagles went 6-for-9 at the charity stripe in the quarter; the Saints made just five of 15 attempts.
That count dipped for the Eagles in the second half, as they shot 11-for-18 from the line. Missed free throws lost the game, Indian Creek coach Marcus Johnson said, though he acknowledged three games in
three days played a factor.
“Second half, it probably was a little wear and tear on our legs and at the free-throw line,” he said.
Devin Young, the sole senior on the Eagles squad, celebrated his last game by sparking a 7-2 run in the third with a basket-and-one, then recorded a steal leading to a teammate’s layup for good measure.
That’d be the last time Indian Creek had control. Aryee said his coaches kept encouraging the Saints to keep shooting, so, that’s what they did.
“Marcus [Johnson] went to a box-andone and he was mixing his defenses up and it gave us problems,” Quinn said. “We got it going in the third from our defense and from going to transition. It wasn’t really an adjustment; we were able to get some stops and get it on the break before they were able to set their defense.”
St. Mary’s exploded for an 8-0 run before the end of the third quarter to lead 40-39, then put together another 8-0 streak to start the fourth. In that time, Aryee poured in 14 points.
“For him, it’s always in bunches. I thought he was settling to shoot 25-footers, NBA-range 3’s,” Quinn said. “Then he worked his way into the paint, got a couple fastbreak layups. Once he got his confidence going, that’s really what it was.”
Johnson said Aryee’s supernova on the floor definitely hurt, but Indian Creek could’ve still pulled out a win.
“It comes down to who makes their shots and we don’t. At the end, we missed a couple,” Johnson said. “Down six with a minute left, we shoot three free throws to put us down three, and we missed them. That’s all it is. It’s tough, it happens.”