By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — With time running down in the third quarter of Saturday’s RCAC Division A matchup, McQuaid’s Anthony Iglesia came off a Connor Zamiara ball screen at the three-point arc. Leadership Academy’s Davon Brown hedged and forced Iglesia to change his course. Brown’s teammate, Rondell Watson, fought past Zamiara’s pick. The two Lions closed in on Iglesia.
With seconds dwindling on the clock and so too the available options, Iglesia picked up his dribble and, in what might have appeared as an act of desperation, shuttled a pass back. Jermaine Taggart took the feed some 25 feet from the basket and calmly launched a shot that found twine as the horn sounded.
Such was the way on this afternoon when the McQuaid Jesuit Knights were not to be denied.
“We were ready for this game,” said Taggart who led four in double figures as McQuaid knocked off first place Leadership, 88-74. “We all played unselfishly. That’s the kind of basketball we can play.”
Taggart connected six times behind the 3-point arc on the afternoon and matched a season-high with 30 points – several coming as the Knights converted advantage opportunities on the break.
“We had scouted them before and saw that they weren’t really good in defensive transition,” Taggart explained. “As Coach (Jack) Leasure said ‘push the ball and you’ll find great things.’ We just tried to build off that.”
McQuaid, which only trailed at 3-0 in the game, pushed their advantage to 20 at half and led by as many as 23. They took a Leadership Academy squad which came into the game averaging more than 87 per contest and held them to 24 points in the first half.
“Our energy level was really good, and we did a good job of rebounding,” Leasure said. “It was all five guys focusing on rebounding. Most teams if you limit them to one shot it’s hard to put up big numbers. I felt like we did a pretty good job of focusing on the rebounding effort.”
Taggart keyed a a pivotal 21-9 first-half run as the Knights sprinted to a double-digit lead and never looked back.
“It was a game where I felt like we really started to share it, execute and play smarter,” Leasure said. “We’ve been playing hard all year. We’ve been playing some pretty good teams too. That was one of the games where we started to play a little bit smarter, so I was proud of them.”
Taggart converted a rebound and putback. Kobe Long grabbed a loose ball and went the length of the floor. Taggart followed with a pair of treys before Zamiara, a 6-foot-6 junior forward, closed the first quarter with a pair of layups – the second when Iglesia forced a turnover and led him into the open floor for an easy bucket.
“We were just rolling off a lot of energy, pushing the ball,” Zamiara said. “We realized they don’t get back in transition too well. I was just looking to take advantage and kept running to the hole.”
The game marked the fifth straight in which the sophomore duo of Long and Taggart both scored in double figures.
“Both of them showed tons of maturity today in playing a little bit smarter,” Leasure noted. “We have a saying that’s from (ESPN analyst and former Duke Blue Devil) Jay Bilas ‘Tough players don’t take tough shots. They work really hard to get easy ones.’ We’ve been focusing on that. Both of them did that today.”
Long finished with 18 points and six rebounds. He is averaging 18.8 points per game over the recent stretch. Taggart is scoring at a rate 19.8 per game over the season.
“Me and Taggart got that connection,” Long said. “We find each other. We played a great game.”
Leadership cut the lead to 12 with just over four minutes remaining in the contest. Davon Brown scored two of his team-high 22. Shaheem Britt followed with a tap in, and Rondell Watson connected for three to make it a 73-61 game.
McQuaid responded by scoring the next eight points.
The Knights improved to 4-2 in the RCAC Division A and 6-7 overall.
“We struggled early on,” Long said. “We’ve been an up and down team. A win like this is a statement win. We needed this win. We have to go on a roll if we want to get a good seeding in sectionals. It’s a great win.”
Taggart grabbed 11 rebounds in the contest. Iglesia finished with 12 points and 11 assists. Zamiara collected 14 points and 11 rebounds. Harry Bruu added seven points. Josh Purcell scored six, and Jon Catone rounded out the scoring for McQuaid with three.
Watson had 17 points for Leadership (12-1/6-1). Nate Doyle scored 12. Dez Ellis added eight. Shaheem Britt (4), Shamir Mccullough (3), Marcus Barr (3) and Leevonson Mcknight (5) finished the scoring for the Lions.
The same two teams are scheduled to meet again on February 13th.
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