By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A second-half comeback stopped short as the Aquinas Li’l Irish boys’ basketball team fell to the Elmira Express (IV), 76-71 Sunday as part of the Bishop Kearney Christmas Showcase.
Trailing 53-35 with 4:43 remaining in the third quarter, Aquinas rallied within two points but could not overcome the final hurdle.
“At the end of the day, I’ll definitely live with the fight we showed, the care that we showed to come back,” Aquinas head coach John McCauley said. “We got down against a team that was executing very well. They made a lot of shots.”
Freshman Mykel White took a Wesley Henderson III feed and finished at the rim to cut the deficit to two at 71-69 with one minute left in the contest. The Li’l Irish were limited to two free throws over the remaining time.
“To be in that spot to tie we were very fortunate,” McCauley added. “Usually when you play as bad as we played, you get run out of the gym. We’ll go back to the drawing board, figure it out and keep chopping away at it.”
Henderson drilled a three-pointer on the first possession of the fourth quarter to make it a 63-54 game. The junior forward later hit an and-one before his two free throws trimmed the margin to four at 71-67 with 1:35 on the clock. He finished with 13 points and earned game MVP honors.
Justin Johnson came off the bench to lead five in double figures with 15 points. With the Li’l Irish trailing by 17, the senior guard connected on a corner triple and followed with a rebound and putback to spark the rally.
“I love the fight from my guys,” McCauley added. “We can’t play like that. We got to come out with more energy. more life, more determination. I thought that team just played harder than us. They executed better. They shot better. They defended better. They did everything better than us.”
Jack Scanlon added five of his 10 points in the fourth quarter. Myles Blackwood had 13 while White scored 11.
Gabe Miller gave AQ a 14-12 edge late in the first quarter. The Li’l did not lead again.
Johnson hit a pull-up jumper to make it a 25-24 game midway through the second quarter.
At that point, Elmira outscored AQ 18-8 to take a 43-32 lead into the locker room.
Elmira posed a potent inside-outside attack. Devin Dennard paced the Express with 19 points. Reilly Houper and Zack Odum combined to hit six 3-pointers and score 27 points. Senior center Trey Hawken scored 15 points all in the paint.
“They shot a high percentage from the field,” McCauley noted. “We didn’t quite follow the scouting report. We knew they were a hot, executing team. We knew we had to disrupt their flow on the defensive end which we didn’t do all game. They got comfortable. They got shots in spots where they knew they would get the shots. Credit to them. They knocked them down.
Aquinas fell to 2-4 with the loss. The Li’l Irish will play Webster Schroeder in the first round of the Mike Dianetti Christmas Tournament, Friday night at Aquinas. UPrep and Leadership Academy open the tournament with a 6 PM tip off. Aquinas and Schroeder will follow.
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