Steinert shows maturity in win
HAMILTON >> The Steinert boys basketball team finally figured out how to pull out a game at the end, and rest assured, Hamilton West was taking notes.
The Spartans held off two runs by the host Hornets and pulled away in the final five minutes for a 67-52 victory over their arch-rival Thursday night. Steinert snapped a three-game losing streak to West dating back to February, 2016.
“It’s huge for us,” said Mario Mazur, who scored nine of his 25 points in the fourth quarter. “It’s been since my freshman year we beat them. Any win against a Hamilton team is huge. It’s our rivalry.”
Because it’s a rivalry, the younger and much more inexperienced Hornets hung in until midway through the fourth quarter. Trailing 26-15 in the second quarter, Jay Malloy’s squad scored 18 straight for a 33-26 advantage. Sophomore Jack Boufford scored 14 of his career-high 24 in the run, including the first 10, as West held a 33-28 edge at intermission.
After a rousing halftime talk by coach Kyle Flanagan — who begun the rousing part during a late timeout in the second quarter — Steinert (3-3) abandoned its zone and went man-to-man. A 15-2 run gave the Spartans a 43-35 advantage they would not relinquish.
“We decided at halftime it was time to wake up,” Flanagan said. “Last year we called ourselves dogs, and we said hungry dogs run fast. We said, ‘Forget it, if we’re gonna come out here and play we might as well go out and play fullcourt manto-man the whole time.’”
“Coach gave us a speech in the lockerroom, kind of just gave us the rundown,” Mazur said. “He said we just have to work or that scoreboard is gonna keep going up on their side. We came out here, did what we had to do, got a run, closed them down, made some shots, and I think the scoreboard told it.”
But the Hornets (1-4) still had some scrap left. After falling behind by eight, Hamilton whittled the deficit to 49-48 when Lewis Griffith made one of two free throws. But over the final 5:30, Steinert used an 18-4 run to take control.
“We’ve been in two ballgames so far with West Windsor South and Pinelands and we had a chance to pull ahead and we weren’t able to break away,” Flanagan said. “We had some missed lay-ups and free throws and today we stepped up. We picked it up on the defensive side and got a couple stops. Aaron Lal got a couple blocks late in the game, and all of a sudden, the next thing you know we come down and hit free throws and get some easy buckets.”
Steinert went 11 of 17 from the line in the final quarter, as Mazur hit two free throws and a 3-pointer to start the decisive run.
“Early on it was a slow start for him to get going,” Flanagan said. “We relied too much on outside shooting and jump shots. Finally in the second half we worked some other guys into the rotation; all of a sudden when they draw people to them on a drive and kick, he’s there wide open. He hit some big threes, including one in the third to spark us.”
Steinert’s man defense also helped cool Bouffard, who was held to seven in the second half.
“We started locking them up man to man,” Mazur said. “I came out on him in the second half and we kind of switched from me and Nymere (Whittaker) and Trevor (Giordano) started helping with that.”
Giordano and Whittaker each had 13 points while Malik Gbayor added 10 points and eight rebounds.
Sean Elefant added eight for Hamilton, which will try and figure out how to win these kind of games during a season-long maturation process.
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores STEINERT (67)
Giordano 5-3-13, Mazur 10-3-25, Whittaker 2-813, Frederick 2-0-4, Lal 0-0-0, Gbayor 4-2-10, Obika 1-0-2, Grant 0-0-0. Totals: 24-16-67 HAMILTON (52)
Domine 1-0-3, Prall 3-1-7, Elefant 1-6-8, Boufford 9-2-24, Beebe 1-0-2, Hall 0-0-0, Maignan 0-0-0, Alexander 0-0-0, Griffith 2-1-5, Williams 0-1-1, Walker 1-0-2. Totals: 18-11-52 Steinert (3-3) 17 11 17 22 - 67
Hamilton (1-4) 15 18 7 12 - 52
3-point goals: Mazur 2, Whittaker, Domine, Boufford 4.