By Paul Gotham
BROOKLYN, NY – A relentless St. Francis of Brooklyn Terriers squad rode a strong second half to a 67-51 win over the Canisius Golden Griffins in non-conference action at the Pope Physical Education Center, Saturday.
The Terriers, losers of their last two games, played like a team with a purpose.
“You never know what you’re about until somebody hits you,” said St. Francis head coach Glenn Braica. “We got hit twice in a row. That kind of makes you question things a little bit. These guys bounced right back which was very good.”
St. Francis outplayed the Golden Griffins in every aspect of the game: rebounding (39-28), points in the paint (48-26), points off turnovers (17-6), second chance points (13-6), fast break (4-0) and off the bench (32-16).
“I never thought we could do that,” Braica commented. “They’re a really good offensive team. I never thought we could guard them like that. I was really proud of our guys.”
Sheldon Hagigal led all scorers with 15, and Brent Jones dished out a game-high eight assists with just one turnover.
“Prior to today we took two losses,” Hagigal said. “We didn’t want to come out and lose three in a row, so the last couple of days in practice we’ve been going hard.”
The pair started the decisive run early in the second half.
Trailing by three, Hagigal converted a rebound and putback then followed that with a hustle play at mid-court getting on the floor for a loose ball and leaking out a pass to Jones for a layup. Jones followed that with a feed to Aleksander Isailovic on a three-on-one break for a layup, and Wayne Martin grabbed an offensive board and scored for a 43-38 SFC lead.
“Whenever we win games, it’s because we defend as hard as we can,” Hagigal said. “We just locked in defensively as a team. We hit the glass. We dove on loose balls, and we were just playing hard, playing our hearts out.”
Canisius tallied the first six after the break for the three-point edge. Chris Manhertz threw down a two-handed dunk after he took a hi-lo feed from Jordan Heath. Billy Baron went end-to-end with a steal and layup, and Jordan Heath made it a 38-35 game when he followed a Baron layup attempt with a dunk.
“We didn’t let our offense affect our defense at the beginning of the second half,” Braica explained. We couldn’t score in the first six possessions or whatever, but we never stopped guarding. So we were able to sustain it.”
The Canisius advantage was short-lived.
“At that point we really had a chance to go up,” said Canisius head coach Jim Baron. “But we missed too many easy shots…They kept hanging around and then all of sudden it didn’t fall for us, and if fell for them.”
The Terriers pushed the lead to double digits at 50-40 with 9:53 remaining in the game and never looked back.
“They’re a good team,” Baron stated. “It just seemed like they wanted it more than us. They played like we played the second half of Buffalo. They were a lot more aggressive…They made more plays.”
Jones handed out seven assists in 12 minutes of playing time of the first half. The 5-10 point guard grabbed two rebounds, hit the only shot he took and made one steal.
“He changed the game,” Braica stated. “He was tremendous.”
Jones routinely penetrated the teeth of the Canisius 2-3 zone. Once into the paint, he forced the Griffs’ interior defense away from the basket and dropped off passes for his teammates to convert into easy baskets.”
“He really was poised,” Braica continued. “He got in the lane. He didn’t lose his composure, and he made good bounce passes. It was so easy for the big guys to catch it.”
“I just [took] whatever the defense gave me,” Jones explained. “I was aggressive to where people picked up on me, and I made the simple plays.”
St. Francis outscored Canisius 9-0 to take its first lead of the game. Matt Milk grabbed a loose ball and finished at the rim. Kevin Douglas drilled a three from the top. Wayne martin scored in transition, and Milk took a Jones dish in the lane for an 11-6 SFC lead.
Canisius battled back.
Phil Valenti corralled an offensive board and converted. Chris Perez drove baseline and finished a reverse layup. Jordan Heath drilled a 3-pointer when he combined on a pick-and-pop at the top of the key with Billy Baron for a 20-19 Canisius edge with 7:34 remaining in the half.
The teams exchanged leads over the next 30 seconds before St. Francis outscored Canisius 14-10 to take a 35-32 lead into the locker room.
The Griffs brought a three-game winning streak into play including the dramatic come-from-behind victory Wednesday over cross-town rival Buffalo. Trailing by as many as 11 points late in the second half the Blue and Gold outscored UB 24-4 to close a 69-55 win.
“We had a long week,” Baron said. “It was very emotional winning two at home and winning the one on the road.”
Billy Baron led the Griffs with 11 points. The senior point guard added four assists and six rebounds.
“He’s a helluva player,” Braica said of Baron. “Some guys can shoot it. Some guys can drive it. Some guys can pass. He does it all. He can get other guys shots. He can shoot the three. He can shoot pull-ups. He can get to the rim. He can get to the free throw line.”
Manhertz added nine points and five rebounds.
Amdy Fall chipped in 11 points for St. Francis.
Jalen Cannon grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
Canisius came into the game averaging nearly 74 points per contests hitting 44.7 percent from the floor and 40.1 percent from long range. St. Francis held Canisius to 34.7 percent (17-49) from the field including 15.4 percent (2-13) behind the arc.
The Terriers improved to 6-5 with the win. They opened the season with a 66-62 win at Miami, Fla. and fell ten days later at Syracuse, 56-50. After winning three straight, SFC lost to Army (67-54) and Monmouth (73-58) coming in Saturday’s game.
Canisius falls to 6-4. The Griffs opened Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play with a pair of victories last weekend over Siena (93-78) and St. Peter’s (82-67). The Griffs win over UB was part of Big 4 doubleheader at the First Niagara Center with Niagara University defeating Davidson in the other game. Canisius travels to Worcester, Mass. to play Holy Cross, Monday night. A 7 p.m. tip time is scheduled.
Paul Gotham is the founder, owner, editor and lead writer at Pickin’ Splinters. Paul is the Communications and Media Director of the New York Collegiate Baseball League. He is a contributor with USA Today and a member of the USBWA. You can follow Paul on Twitter @PickinSplinters.
Leave a Reply