ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Kobe Long and Jermaine Taggart combined for 57 points, and the McQuaid Jesuit Knights defeated the Aquinas Li’l Irish 82-75 to sweep the season series between longtime rivals.
Taggart highlighted a 14-6 run midway through the second quarter with 11 of his game-high 30 points.
“Our guys are always excited for this matchup,” McQuaid head coach Jack Leasure said. “It’s a fun rivalry. We brought a lot of energy. I thought we showed some maturity and some of that (basketball) IQ- stuff today.”
With the Jesuit Knight holding a three-point edge, Taggart connected on a pair of free throws before converting a rebound and putback. After Long drilled a 3-pointer in transition, Taggart followed with a trey of his own. The junior guard hit back-to-back buckets to give McQuaid its largest lead of the first half at 42-31.
McQuaid’s second-quarter run happened with starting center Connor Zamiara on the bench with two fouls.
“Guys did a good job of being ready,” Leasure noted. “Brady Darby off the bench gave us some good minutes, and Rueben Daniel played well. We even had guards go down and be physical. We did a good job of piecing that together in the first half.”
Rueben Daniel snaps a 7-0 @AQBoys_Hoops run. @McQuaidBball up 28-23 midway through 2nd. pic.twitter.com/SKoU0tJULt
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 12, 2019
Long connected five times from 3-point land for the evening, converted on 6-of-6 free throw attempts and scored 27 points.
AQ’s Jack Scanlon drilled back-to-back 3-pointers late in the second quarter to pull the Li’l Irish within five at 42-37 going into the locker room. Scanlon finished with 17 points.
Tyler Warner paced Aquinas with 21 points. The 6-foot-11 junior forward scored 13 in the first half. Warner added four more in the third quarter.
Warner found Jack Bleier on a kick out for three points late in the fourth to cut the McQuaid lead to four at 72-68. AQ did not get any closer.
From last night: Tyler Warner and Jack Bleier work inside-out for the triple. @AQBoys_Hoops pic.twitter.com/ZwmPiKMgpD
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 12, 2019
Bleier finished with 11 points. Steve Mahar and Gabe Miller added 10 apiece for Aquinas. Myles Blackwood (4) and James Jones (2) rounded out the scoring for the Li’l Irish (6-12).
Zamiara scored 14 for McQuaid. Rueben Daniel had six points. Harry Bruu (2) and Seamus Hogan (3) also scored for the Jesuit Knights.
The win was the third straight for McQuaid (14-4) which hosts Leadership Academy on Wednesday to close the regular season. The Jesuit Knights start sectionals next week with an eye on their second straight class AA title.
“Every team is a different group,” Leasure said when asked about the prospect of defending the title. “This team knows what we need to do to win. We’re starting to understand those things. You take the regular season – the wins and the losses – the whole thing is to just to get you to a point where you’re playing together and playing really hard come sectional time. I think that’s where our mind is at. We just want to be playing really hard come that first game.”
McQuaid took the earlier meeting between the two teams, 68-56.
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