Hun shows flashes but ultimately succumbs to St. Benedict’s
PRINCETON >> Rallying from 10 down for a one-point halftime lead provides some nice moments for a basketball team. But when the opponent is St. Benedict’s Prep, you’re going to need a whole lot of great moments to survive the whole game.
Hun discovered that Wednesday night, as the Gray Bees used a thirdquarter blitzkrieg to take a 79-53 victory at Shipley Pavilion.
The Raiders entered the break with a 31-30 lead thanks to a big second quarter. That got wiped out by St. Benedict’s 26-3 run during the third quarter.
“We did a lot of good things today,” coach Jon Stone said. “We had flashes when we were really good. We need to put together longer periods of time throughout the whole game as opposed to just flashes.”
St. Benedict’s, which has won four straight Prep A titles and six of seven during Mark Taylor’s reign, was playing without three injured players — guard C.J. Wilcher, 6-11 center Madani Diarra and 7-0 center Abdoul Mounir Hima. But there was still talent on the floor and the Bees showed it by racing to leads of 20-10 and 22-12.
The Raiders (1-3) responded in a big way, as Andrew Seager scored six of his 18 points in a 20-9 run. Hun held two 3-point advantages before St. Benedict’s got two free throws to close the half.
Things changed quickly after intermission. Supreme Cook sandwiched two put-backs around Dylan Deveney’s 3-pointer to tie the game at 35. His second conversion was followed by two straight 3-pointers by Adetokunbo “Tokes” Bakare, who would hit 5 of 7 from behind the arc in the quarter en route to 20 points. Hun also began to turn the ball over and St. Benedict’s had a 59-38 advantage going into the final period.
“We had a nice little talk at halftime,” Taylor said. “We didn’t really do anything different. We switched our offense but other than that, defensively we just really focused on containing the guy with the ball and not over-committing or pushing up and fouling him. We just didn’t foul and we forced them to make plays and they struggled.”
Seager, a post-graduate from Ocean Township, was at a loss for words.
“I really can’t explain what happened,” he said. “Maybe we were good with being up one against them, I don’t know what it was. We didn’t have the same energy we had in the first half.”
Conversely, St. Benedict’s had a ton of energy, with the tone being set by Cook on the offensive boards.
“We made that a point of emphasis,” Taylor said. “The rebounding was 11-10 us at half and we said that’s unacceptable for our athleticism. Supreme came out and played great and Zarique (Nutter, 18 points) played well. Tokes really shot the ball well, that always helps when you make shots.”
Taylor’s point of emphasis was also Stone’s, who told his team to protect the ball and keep the Bees off the offensive boards.
“We got away from some of the things that got us going in the first half,” the coach said. “Ultimately turnovers were a big problem and certainly on the glass. And they made some shots.”
Despite the second-half collapse, Seager agreed with his coach there were some good things to build on.
“They’re a nationally recognized team,” he said. “Going off last year, I heard how we didn’t have the best season so we’re trying to change the culture around here. Hopefully we can move forward in the season by taking that first half, playing hard with them and coming back from a 10-point deficit. But I really can’t explain that second half.”
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores
St. Benedict’s (2-0) 20 11 28 20 – 79 22615–53 Hun (1-3) 10 ST. BENEDICT’S (79) Cook 5-0-10, Nutter 6-5-18, Nije 4-4-12, Bakare 7-020, Bethlow 2-2-8, Estrada 2-0-5, Okani 1-0-2, Orogun 1-0-2, Drame 1-0-2. Totals: 29-11-79 HUN (53) Seager 6-6-18, Knight 1-0-3, Adelman 2-2-6, Florence 0-0-0, Weiss 1-0-3, Vessey 3-0-7, Basma 0-0-0, Deveney 2-1-7, Alvarado 1-2-4, Bostic 1-0-2, Fleming 1-0-3. Totals: 18-11-53. 3-point goals: Bakare 6, Nutter, Bethlow 2, Estrada, Knight, Weiss, Vessey, Deveney 2, Fleming.