Seniors’ strong effort carries the day for Gaels in blowout win
Stines, Crawley take care of business for Mount Saint Joe’s
The clock still had two-plus minutes left on it when Mount Saint Joseph’s senior guards D’Angelo Stines and Ausar Crawley headed to the bench against McDonogh on Friday. The work for the day was complete for the pair.
In this unconventional, abbreviated basketball season, the biggest thing the Gaels have going for them is their gifted and experienced backcourt.
It showed up big Friday. Stines scored a game-high 22 points and Crawley, the team’s floor leader, controlled the tempo, dished out assists and scored nine points as the Gaels started fast and rolled to a 66-43 win over the host Eagles.
Mount Saint Joe, which also got 17 points from freshman forward Bryson Tucker, improves to 3-1 with its second straight win.
“Any time you got two experienced guards that are all-league caliber players, you got a chance to be a pretty good team,” said Mount Saint Joe coach Pat Clatchey. “We felt coming into the season — thankfully we’re having somewhat of a season — that was going to be the strength of our team. They’re two experienced guards that have been on championship teams and it’s showing.”
The Gaels, who lost at McDonogh last season, wanted to start fast and use their speed to
offset the Eagles’ size advantage. They did just that and it was Stines who made sure.
He scored 10 straight points in the middle of the first quarter — hitting two 3-pointers and adding two aggressive drives to provide a 16-6 lead. The visitor’s lead grew to 41-23 at intermission and they came out just as strong in the second half — getting consecutive 3-pointers from Ace Valentine and Tucker and two from Stines to put the game away at 55-29 with 2:46 left in third quarter.
“We took it real personal because last year we came in here and let one get away. So we were focused in practice on making sure we had a good start and then at halftime, we stressed it again,” Stines said.
The victory checked off a lot of boxes for the Gaels. They defended well inside against the Eagles — senior San Carr led the way, Crawley took good care of the basketball, they got out in transition when it was available, and they made shots.
The team seems aware of the value of each practice and game, and are quickly growing.
“It’s really different compared to past years, but we’ve been making the most of every practice — just making sure we go over anything we saw in the past game and then focus in on things that can help us the next game,” Stines said.
The Eagles (1-4) concluded a frustrating 0-3 week. Forward Dani Dennis-Sutton played hard inside to finish with a team-high 13 points and senior guard Jared Billups, who returned from an ankle injury, added 12, but it was not nearly enough to keep up with the Gaels.
“Honestly, we got maturing to do as a team,” said McDonogh coach T.J. Jordan.
“The youth definitely has come out in the last couple games. I hope in the future we can look back on these games as growing pains we’re going through. But, at the same time, we got to come ready to play. The urgency wasn’t there. St. Joe is a good team and we didn’t show up in the beginning, so they opened up a lead and there you go.”
Both teams return to action on Monday with Mount Saint Joeseph looking to keep rolling with a home game against Gilman, while McDonogh will try to get on track visiting Annapolis Area Christian. Both games are slated for 6 p.m.