Star Spencer muscles past Mount St. Mary

Saddled with foul trouble, Star Spencer big man Brandon Zeno only managed four minutes in the first half against Mount St. Mary.

He made up for it after the break.

The sophomore forward scored all 14 of his points in the second half as Star Spencer cruised past Mount St. Mary 61-46 in the Class 3A semifinals at State Fair Arena on Friday.

Star Spencer used an 18-4 third-quarter run to break the game wide open, leading Mount St. Mary 40-26 going into the third quarter and running away with it in the fourth.

“All we did was play our defense,” Zeno said. “We beat guys up the floor, get out and run. Play to win.”

Star Spencer coach Lance Cudjoe Jr. said Zeno is a force down low.

“He’ll punish you down there,” Cudjoe said. “He does a great job of getting position, and he has great hands. He’s a bully, a good bully.”

In the run that broke open the game for Star Spencer, Zeno had 10 points on five straight possessions all coming at the rim. Zeno finished 7-of-11 from the field and helped Star Spencer to 75 percent shooting in the second half.

“I just keep on going at them,” Zeno said. “Go at them until they wear down.”

Cudjoe said a main emphasis for his team was limiting the penetration by Mount St. Mary guards Stephon Hall and Cedric Rollerson.

“They have two great guards and we needed to be able to stop them,” Cudjoe said.

“They are really good at getting to rim for easy shots, so we knew we wanted to clog things up and make it tough on them.”

Hall for Mount St. Mary finished with 23 points but on 8-of-21 shooting and was the only Rocket scorer in double digits. Rollerson finished with nine points.

Star Spencer guard Latarryus Smith finished with 12 points and four steals while sophomore guard Jayden Winder added nine points.

“We came to get our ring,” Zeno said. “Last year we didn’t pull it off, now we are back.”