Dutch JV team outpaced Crusaders for 56-46 win Friday night
Only four members of the St. Marys Area Flying Dutchmen junior varsity basketball team put points on the board in Friday night’s matchup against ECC, but three of those players put up double figures to lead St. Marys to a 10-point win, 56-46.
Ben Paul led the Dutchmen with 20 points, Drew Schutz scored 15, and Devlin Caskey finished with 14. The team’s other player to get into the scoring column – Tysen Beimel – chipped in with seven.
The game was closer at times than indicated by the final score, and ECC’s Marcus Muccio kept the Crusaders in it by putting up 20 points of his own, which included six threes.
The Dutchmen led all the way in the matchup, which they opened with a seven-point run on a three by Caskey and buckets by Paul and Schutz. The Crusaders got on the board just over two minutes into the game on a three by Charlie Geci, which made the score 7-3. Another bucket by Schutz and a pair of foul shots by Paul put the Dutch up by eight, 11-3, but ECC came charging back before the end of the quarter.
A bucket by Muccio and a pair of twos by Joel Singer made it a two-point game, 11-9, with 49 seconds left in the quarter, but Caskey hit another three 17 seconds later to end the frame with the Dutchmen leading by nine, 14-9.
Caskey and ECC’s Kurt Wolfe traded threes to open the second quarter scoring, and then buckets by Beimel and Schutz pushed SMA’s lead to nine, 21-12.
Following a pair of foul shots by Geci for the Crusaders, St. Marys went on a fivepoint run as Schutz and Paul each made a field
goal and Beimel went one-for-two from the foul line.
Frankie Smith got into the scoring column for ECC with 1:21 left in the half as he went one-for-two from the foul line, and then the Dutchmen took their biggest lead of the half, going up by 13 points, 28-15, on another bucket by Schutz with 1:07 remaining.
However, Muccio hit a pair of threes in the final 50 seconds for the Crusaders to send the game into the break with the Dutchmen’s lead trimmed to six points, 28-21.
The Crusaders continued to close the gap at the start of the third quarter, with twos by Geci and Wolfe making it a three-point game, 28-25, with 5:50 still to play in the frame.
The Dutchmen responded with a fivepoint run on a pair of foul shots by Schutz and a three by Paul, but threes by Wolfe and Muccio for the Crusaders cut the deficit to two points, 33-31, with 1:27 left in the quarter.
Another five-point run by St. Marys – this time on a three by Schutz and a two by Paul – put the Dutchmen back up by seven. Muccio hit his fourth three of the game with 35 seconds remaining, sending the game into the final frame with St. Marys leading by four, 38-34.
A pair of twos by Beimel in the first minute of the fourth quarter put the Dutchmen ahead by eight, but Muccio responded with another three with 5:32 left in the game.
A pair of buckets by Paul were answered with a five-point run by the Crusaders on Muccio’s sixth three and a bucket by Geci. Caskey responded with five points for St. Marys on a three and a two of his own, making the score 51-42 in St. Marys Area’s favor.
Following a timeout with 1:36 to go, the Crusaders scored their final points of the game on buckets by Joe Toncich and Smith, reducing SMA’s lead to five points, 51-46, with 1:08 to go.
The remaining points in the contest were all scored by the Flying Dutchmen from the foul line. Members of the SMA squad made six trips to the line in the final 56.4 seconds of the contest, with Paul doing all of the scoring as he went five-for-six to set the final score at 56-46 in favor of the Dutchmen. St. Marys Area 56 Alex Mertz 0-0-0-0-0, Angelo Catalone 0-00-0-0, Tysen Beimel 3-0-1-4-7, Drew Schutz 5-1-2-2-15, Ben Paul 5-1-7-8-20, Louis Nedzinski 0-0-0-0-0, Cameron Coudriet 0-0-0-0-0, Clay Solada 0-0-0-0-0, Devlin Caskey 1-4-0-114. Totals 14-6-10-1556.
Elk Catholic 46 Frankie Smith 1-0-12-3, Isaac Vogt 0-0-0-00, Jacob Wasko 0-0-0-00, Joe Toncich 1-0-0-0-2, Brayden Pistner 0-0-00-0, Kurt Wolfe 1-2-0-08, Christian Sloff 0-00-0-0, Marcus Muccio 1-6-0-0-20, Joel Singer 2-0-0-0-4, Charlie Geci 2-1-2-2-9. Totals 8-9-34-46.
Score by quarters
SMAHS 14 14 10 18 56
ECCHS 9 12 13 12 46