TCA stuffed by Roselle Catholic
HAMILTON » Fred Falchi had no interest in chalking up Trenton Catholic Academy’s most lopsided loss in five years to the talent on the opposing side.
In fact, the final scoreboard didn’t perturb him much at all.
Falchi, now in his 19th season at the helm of the Iron Mikes boys basketball program, found himself shaking his head repeatedly following TCA’s 89-49 beatdown Monday night at the hands of Roselle Catholic, ranked No. 1 in NJ.com’s state rankings.
“I’ve had teams that really had no talent, but we would just say how hard they played,” Falchi said. “The only thing you can control is how hard you play. And listen, I couldn’t care less about the score. The effort was just terrible.”
Coming off an 18-point win over Trenton on Saturday, TCA was eager for the litmus test that would illustrate the team’s outlook for the stretch run of the season. But Falchi cautioned that the Iron Mikes needed to do a better job of locking in on every single play for 32 minutes, noting that the juggernauts in Non-Public B South leave no margin for error.
TCA was exposed in more ways than that when it hosted mighty Roselle Catholic.
After TCA scored the first five points of the game, Roselle Catholic promptly seized total control and scored the next 18 points stretching into the second quarter.
TCA went nearly 10 minutes without a basket. Quashawn Lane’s fastbreak layup with 6:37 remaining in the second quarter made it an 18-7 game. Roselle Catholic then closed the half on a 19-6 run.
The Iron Mikes had no answers offensively for the Lions’ 2-3 zone defense anchored by 6-foot-10 Naz Reid and 6-foot-8 Alanzo Frink.
“We did what we do in practice: nothing,” Falchi said. “Our practices aren’t good. We try to go over things with them. They’re very disinterested. They’re talented, but (Roselle Catholic is) more talented, and now you need to know how to play.”
Reid, an LSU commit and rated by 247sports as the No. 1 recruit in the state, finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots. TCA held him to two points in the first quarter, but the Iron Mikes only held up for so long defensively without any player taller than 6-foot-5.
“It’s the way he did it,” Falchi said. “One of the first plays of the game, we said when he catches the ball in there, we’ve got to dig down. We have three guys run away. Maybe if they did what they were supposed to do it’s still not gonna work, but at least they’re paying attention to what you want them to do.”
And even so, Roselle Catholic blitzed TCA from a multitude of angles.
Eleven different Lions scored. They buried eight total 3-pointers. Ithiel Horton made five 3-pointers as part of a 17-point outing. Two others finished in double figures.
“A lot of times we don’t get the automatic Division I guy,” Falchi said. “Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. Now these guys got to compete against other Division I guys to see if you are one, and tonight wasn’t a good showing by really anybody.”
TCA’s Khalif Battle scored all of his game-high 22 points in the second half, but none really mattered as the Iron Mikes tried engaging in a track meet. Roselle Catholic easily won it with an array of dunks and 52 points over the final 16 points.
TCA still has 14 games left before postseason play. With powerhouses such as St. Benedict’s and Linden remaining on a grueling schedule, the Iron Mikes will have plenty of opportunity to respond to Mon- day’s wake-up call.
“It’s very frustrating when kids play a game that they love and they don’t come to play,” Falchi said. “We’ll have other games just like this — other teams we play. Now, whether we’re ready or not, it’s up to the kids.”