TUESDAY HOOPS: Lady Knights pull upset while Trinity boys topple Catholic
John Morris goes up for two of his 37 points in Trinity’s win over Catholic on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Trinity had owned a comfortable lead for most of Tuesday’s area game with Catholic, but by the end of the third quarter the Knights had trimmed the deficit to a point.
A couple of baskets by Wildcat senior John Morris restored some order and Trinity went on to win 52-43 at Captain Jack Court to improve to 2-0 in area play.
“Coach ‘Sham’ (assistant coach Jon Shamburger) is really good at reminding me sometimes that the ball needs to go in the post,” Trinity coach Matt Arrighi said. “We got into some stuff that we thought would give us a good chance to get the ball into the post. We turned it over a couple of times but at the end of the day, when you get it to him, good things happen more often than not.”
Morris finished with 37 points, scoring 15 points in the third quarter and eight more in the fourth despite the Knights’ efforts to keep the senior forward from dictating the outcome.
“He was really good,” Catholic coach Mike Curry said. “He steps out and shoots it, he posts up. He was really good. He was our focal point but I guess the point didn’t get across.”
On their end of the court, the Knights struggled to run their offense as the leading scorer, PJ Evans, struggled to find a clean look until the outcome had been decided late in the fourth quarter.
“I think we ran out of gas,” Curry said. “That’s what I was just telling PJ. I mean, I’m really playing him too many minutes. In years past, I was able to give the guys a blow right at the end of the first quarter and again at the end of the third. And I tried to give him one at the beginning of the fourth but he didn’t have it down the stretch. I’ve got to do a better job of getting those guys the breaks they need.”
The area game was an important gauge for both squads, with Catholic coming off a two-point area loss last Friday in Tuskegee against Booker T. Washington.
“I thought we played better the other night than we did tonight,” Curry said, “but Trinity’s a good team. They’re solid, they’ve got a guy who can go get buckets. I don’t think we had the same juice we did the other night but Trinity had a lot to do with that.”
Trinity (12-4) will hit the road for the first time in area play, traveling to Booker T. Washington on Thursday and LAMP on Friday.
“When Catholic made that push and cut it to one, nobody seemed to panic, which is what you tend to get out of veteran teams,” Arrighi said. “We really felt like, in our gym, if we just stayed the course of what we were doing over four quarters, it would play out and I felt like our guys did a really good job of that.”
Cooper Bernier following Morris in scoring with seven points.
“John had a great game,” Arrighi said. “He’s having a great season. We have a lot of guys having good seasons, but we still need more guys to step up. We have other guys on our team that really can score and we need guys to start scoring. Hopefully, we’ll continue to get better at that.”
Evans led Catholic with 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals, followed by MJ Belser with 13 points and two rebounds. The Knights (3-5) dropped to 0-2 in 4A Area 5 play but Curry wasn’t discouraged.
“We’re trying to get better every day,” he said. “I think we are. It’s not showing on the scoreboard these last two games but I like the direction we’re going.
Catholic girls upset Wildcats
With Mya Moskowitz back in the starting lineup, Trinity looked more potent on offense in the Wildcats’ second meeting with Catholic this year.
But as it turned out, it was the Knights that showcased their weapons, getting at least eight points from four different players to remain unbeaten in 4A Area 5 play with a 57-47 upset of the Wildcats at Captain Jack Court on Tuesday night.
In a Dec. 21 tournament game on the same floor, Catholic’s Hannah Smith got into foul trouble and Trinity’s defense clamped down on point guard Heaven Bailey to help a short-handed Trinity team, playing without starters Francie Morris and Moskowitz, pull out a 43-42 win. This time, Bailey finished with 18 points as the Wildcats were unable to concentrate on the Catholic ballhandler because of the contributions from Ajah Tuggle, Grace Levanda and Kierstyn Green.
“They hit three 3’s to start the game,” Catholic coach Jill Clark said. “And you’re like, ‘Really? Not this again.’ But our kids responded well. The difference to me, tonight, was more people contributed on offense and that’s what we’ve got to have. Grace, Kierstyn, Ajah stepping up and getting some offensive points for us was huge.
“If other people make shots, they can’t double-team and triple-team other people. Now, they’ve got to respect you and come play you and it loosens it up for everybody else.”
Trinity trailed by seven at the half, trimmed the deficit to a point, then fell behind by eight points at the end of the third quarter as ice-cold shooting was compounded by Catholic’s success on the other end of the court.
“They did a better job of getting out on some of those people, so they took that away,” Trinity coach Blake Smith said. “I thought they made some good adjustments. But when we did get (open looks), we didn’t hit many of them. But I’m not going to say that’s us missing shots, I think they defended us well and got us rattled.”
Moskowitz finished as the game’s leading scorer with 19 points. Maddie Smith, who had the game-winning shot in the first meeting, added 15.
“I thought Mya played a great game,” Smith said. “In some ways, you might say that offensively we had more opportunities this time. I think we scored more points. The problem was defensively. We didn’t do some things that maybe we wanted to do. They had prepped for some things that we do. But the other thing is Heaven made some tough shots.”
Hannah Smith and Tuggle had 13 points, followed by Levanda with eight as Catholic (10-5) improved to 2-0 in 4A Area 5 play with a huge win on their opponents’ court.
“We feel good, but we also know we’re going to see them again in a week, we’ll see them again in the area tournament and it could be that we see them again (in the regionals),” Clark said. “He knows it and we know it. It’s going to be one of those back and forth, back and forth. All we want is the last one.”
Trinity (17-4) lost for the first time in the last 10 games and dropped to 1-1 in area play with road games against Booker T. Washington on Thursday and LAMP on Friday.
“At the end of the day, that’s probably good for us,” Smith said of the loss. “Playing at this level for three years in a row, you need some things to shake you. That’s just the reality. And I think that shook us. Good teams will respond and get better.”