Iona Prep slow-boils Terriers in season opener
FRESH MEADOWS, NY – And so it begins. The CHSAA regular season opened for the St. Francis Prep Terriers as they hosted the Iona Prep Gaels from New Rochelle on Saturday. In a slow-moving affair, the Terriers and its fans were forced to endure quicksand that ultimately ended in a 55-35 loss.
“It was our first game [of the season],” said Iona Prep head coach Vic Quirolo. “There was some good and bad but overall I thought defensively we were sound.”
A sloppy first half by both teams almost grinded the game to a halt early on but the Gaels snapped out of it with intermitted scoring by Soulymane Koureissi ’19 and 6’1” guard Romar Reid ‘18. Suddenly, transition buckets by 6’5” Bryce Wills ‘18 and 6’8” Josh Alexander ‘18 erupted to cap off an 11 – 0 run. 6’2” Nick Ovanessian ‘18 ended the Gaels run but St. Francis Prep was still down 11-2 as the second quarter ensued.
Koureissi continued where he left off in the opening quarter with a perimeter shot and a face-up move in the paint. Down by 15 points, the Terriers finally began to fight back as 6’2” Brandon Tatis ‘18 got hot from midrange along with 5’10” senior guard Jayden Sutton ‘17. Iona Prep kept the pressure on and finished out the half with a substantial 28 -8 advantage.
The Gaels continued with their deliberate march forward on offense with 6’4” Nick Brennan ‘17 scoring from the air along with Wills trying to rip the rim down as he slashed to the hole. Iona Prep’s lead grew to 30 points with 5:13 left in the third
Only scoring two points in the quarter thus far, St. Francis Prep finally put together a 13 - 4run led by Sutton, Tatis along with transition buckets by 6’1” Costantino Kosimidis ‘18 and a trey by 6’0” Justin Hendrick ‘19.
Unfortunately for the undersized Terriers, Iona Prep was still in front by 22 points as the fourth quarter began. So much so that Coach Quirolo felt comfortable enough with Iona Prep’s cushion that he let his bench finish out the game. Sutton launched a mad push to reduce the deficit and helped pull the Terriers to within 14 points.
Quirolo reinserted Alexander as his big man security blanket and the Gaels coasted to a twenty point in-league win paced by Koureissi who netted 20 points with Brennan and Wills adding 10 points and 7 points respectively. Sutton was the high man for St. Francis Prep with 10 points with Tatis contributing 9 points.
Coach Quirolo admitted his team had first game jitters saying, “Offensively we’re a work in progress.” Asked to grade his team’s overall performance, he gave them a B+. “I told [the team] that this is a first step and there’s a long way to go.”
