By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, NY — It was as advertised. And then some. A pair of high school basketball heavyweights going toe-to-toe on the hardwood.
In the end, the L’il Irish of Aquinas had more to prove.
Christian White and Phil Valenti combined for 49 points as Aquinas defeated the Bishop Kearney Kings 65-57 in Section V High School Boys’ Basketball at the Blue Cross Arena Wednesday night.
Valenti’s pull up three from the right corner gave Aquinas its first lead of the game at 51-50 with just five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
“There was a timeout right after that, and we said we got to step on them right now,” Valenti commented. “It was over. We knew it.”
Valenti’s shot completed a 15-point comeback for Aquinas.
“We started off slow,” continued the senior forward who will play at Canisius College next season. “But it’s not how you start. It’s how you finish.”
Kearney sprinted to an early nine-point advantage.
Chinonso Obokoh started the scoring with a turnaround jumper just outside the lane. The 6-foot-9 junior forward followed with a rebound and putback on the next possession. Redell Freeman found Antwoine Anderson open in transition, and the junior guard pulled up behind the arc for a 7-0 lead.
After an Aquinas timeout, the Kings kept up the pressure. Freeman had a steal and a layup. Obokoh followed with another rebound and finish. Freeman pulled up at the free throw line and hit a jumper. Anderson took an outlet pass from Obokoh and went end-to-end for a 15-3 lead.
Freeman and Anderson connected from long range before the end of the quarter, and BK led 21-6.
But the price for the lead proved too much. By the end of the second quarter, both Obokoh and Thomas Bryant were on the Kearney bench with three fouls.
“It’s always tough to overcome it,” Kearney coach Jon Boon said of his team’s foul troubles. “Especially when it’s your two best players. All of a sudden we go from having the size advantage to those two sitting next to me, and they have the size advantage.”
White sparked the AQ rally connecting seven times from behind the arc.
“Christian didn’t miss tonight. I don’t know once, twice maybe,” Boon explained. “He shot it great. We didn’t do a real good job of finding him especially in transition a couple of times.”
White pulled up on the break for his third trey of the second quarter narrowing the gap to 32-30.
“We started off slow,” White said. “I think it smacked us in the face and woke us up a little bit.”
Kearney responded early in the second half. With Obokoh and the 6-foot-7 Bryant back on the floor, the Kings played to their advantage in the paint.
Obokoh hit a jump hook in the lane. The junior went to the free throw line on the next two trips hitting three of four. Anderson drove the baseline and led Bryant with a pass on the opposite side of the lane for a dunk. Obokoh scored on the next two possessions, and Kearney’s lead swelled to ten at 44-34.
Aquinas answered back.
“They played with a lot of energy,” Boon said of the Irish. “They had a point to prove. Everyone was saying you almost lost to them without Chinonso.”
The Little Irish outscored Kearney 22-10 in the final eight minutes for the decisive margin.
White’s back-to-back threes with four minutes remaining gave the the Maroon and White a 57-52 advantage.
The senior point guard’s long range game captured the attention of everyone in the arena, but his free throw shooting sealed the victory. White drained six of eight from the charity stripe in the game’s final two minutes. He hit one-and-one free throws for a 59-55 margin, and the Irish never looked back.
White led all scorers with 27. Valenti added 22.
Obokoh had 19 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks.
Freeman added 15 with five assists. Bryant chipped in 12. Anderson scored nine.
The game was marred by technicals assessed late in the fourth quarter.
Syracuse University head coach Jim Boeheim and his assistant Mike Hopkins watched the game from court side as did Villanova head coach Jay Wright and his staff. Former Section V standout and Villanova Wildcat, Greg Woodard was also in attendance. Texas Longhorn assistant Rob Lanier also was in town to take in the tilt.
Last month, the L’il Irish beat Kearney in double overtime 76-71. Obokoh was sideline for that match with a strained ligament in his foot.
Aquinas, ranked ninth in New York State, improved to 12-2 with the win.
The Kings fell to 10-4. Kearney hosts Henninger High (III) Friday night. Tipoff is 7PM. The Kings are ranked 23rd in the state.
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