Mt. Saint Michael falls on top of Stepinac
BRONX, NY - Love is a many splendored thing but it’s something that must be nurtured. If you abuse it, love will leave you high and dry. On Monday, Archbishop Stepinac fell in love with the jumpshot but took advantage of it and got buried by Mt. Saint Michael, 83 -66.
“It was the first bad game of the year for us,” said Crusaders Head Coach Pat Massaroni. “Tonight, we didn’t attack, we didn’t defend at a high level and they were really good tonight.”
Stepinac came out the box like gangbusters with Alan Griffin ‘18 nailing two well defended three-pointers that ignited a 20 – 9 Crusaders run. A trey by point guard R.J. Davis ‘20 placed salt on the wound. All signs pointed to a route but back-to-back steals by Mike Krause ‘18 and Jacob Rodriguez ‘17 would reset the momentum in the direction of the Mountaineers.
Recently, the Mountaineers had fallen on hard times, losing to Cardinal Hayes and Iona Prep and vowed not to go quietly. Senior leader Elijah Buchannan ‘17 said the frustration for the last two games fueled his team even though they were down by 11 points. “We didn’t want to give up so we just kept our heads up.”
Krause followed up his theft with an aerial assault that put Mt. Saint Michael on the comeback trail and closed the gap to three-points. “I thought the flow of the game was a little fast for us,” said Mountaineers head coach Tom Fraher. “I said let's go zone. Let’s just slow them down and keep them in front of us.”
Point guard Mike Green ‘19 acted as the floor general to facilitate the strategy but he also added a clutch three-pointer. Rodriguez made a defensive stand as he blocked Griffin from behind as he attempted to drive to the rim. Mt. Saint Michael eventually countered Stepinac’s initial run shifting the momentum permanently with 20 – 5 response resulting in 4-point lead to start the second quarter.
Although the Crusaders were slowly dying by jay, they did seem to notice and continued the shoot out with Mount as Eduard Minaya ‘19 drained a three from the corner. Unfortunately for Stepinac, a porous defense allowed MSM to stay on top and extend its lead. Athletic freshman guard Ibrahim Wattera ‘20 and Krause helped keep the Mountaineers on top but when Buchannan started to pile on points as well, Stepinac’s deficit grew to 53 – 26 by the half.
The first half was a shootout with a jaw-dropping combined total of 16 three-pointers but in the second half, the Crusaders field goal percentage fell dramatically while Mounts remained steady. Buchanan powered the Mountaineers in the second half with Rodriguez and Wattera adding offense.
By the end of the third quarter, Stepinac found themselves down by 23 points as their defense withered on the vine. The final quarter was blur as Wattera and Rodriquez wreaked havoc on the Crusaders. With 4 minutes left in regulation, Mt. Saint Michael had amassed it largest lead of 77 – 49 before the game faded to black for the visiting team.
The Crusaders may have lost two games but Coach Fraher told his team to focus on the upside. “You lose to Hayes by two. You lose to Iona in overtime. [The team] was down this week and we said to them, we’re playing well.”
Rodriguez led Mt. Saint Michael with 20 points with Buchanan, Wattera and Krause adding 18 points, 14 points and 13 points respectively. Griffin was high man for Stepinac with 21 points.
