The St. Andrew’s seventh-grade boys’ basketball team hosted a tall, tough team from Holy Family Sunday. The Big Green of St. Andrew’s had all they could handle when they first played Holy Family, losing by 12. But this time managed top pull
The makeup of this game was different. Big Green was moving well, passing the ball crisply and played tough under the boards, even though Holy Family had three players bigger than St. Andrew’s biggest.
Big Green jumped out to an early lead and built on that during the first quarter, as Julian Rodriguez continued to box out and out-rebound his bigger counterpart, while John McEntee and Giovanni Fepa assisted on the boards.
At the end of the first period led by scoring by John McEntee (12 points), St. Andrew’s had an 11-4 lead. Aggressive rebounding by Rodriguez (9 points) and Evan Shin (1 point) held down the Holy Family scoring and a tenacious press by Sean McEnerny, Anthony Cardone and Andrew Banuchi (2 points), kept the ball on the Holy Family side of the court during a majority of the second quarter.
Big Green took a 20-9 lead into the half time break.
St. Andrew's started to have some foul trouble in the third period as Anthony Cardone had to sit with four fouls and Andrew Banuchi and Giovanni Pepa sat with three apiece.
Andrew’s subs, including Michael Lopresti, Matthew Calizia, Matthew Routh, Evan Shin and Daniel Capeau played big in the third quarter, as Routh drove the lane and scored a basket as well as pulling down several rebounds.
Capeau, Lopresti, and Galizia boxed out and moved the ball, keeping it out of the hands of the pressing Holy Family players.
John McEntee continued to control the pace of the game on behalf of Big Green, while Holy Family occasionally double teamed McEntee in an effort to deprive him of the ball.
Big Green took a 14-point lead into the fourth quarter and with approximately two minutes left in the game St. Andrew’s found itself without Banuchi, Cardone or Pepa, all of whom had fouled out.
A tiring St. Andrew’s team continued to weather the press, but Holy Family was able to cut Big Green’s lead to three with less than a minute remaining in regulation.
Evan Shin went to the line and hit the back end of two foul shots, allowing St. Andrew’s to hold onto a four-point lead.
With approximately 24 seconds left Holy Family went to the line and made 1-of-2, cutting the lead to three. After a St. Andrew’s turnover, Holy family’s final three-point shot to tie went awry thanks to some solid defense by McEntee, Routh and Rodriguez.
St. Andrew's looks forward to its next contest and final regular game season against Monastery, a team they handled easily during their first go around. Big Green looks forward to competing in the first round of the playoffs in two weeks.
