By BILLY HEYEN
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Aquinas was ready to take it easy on Friday night’s final defensive possession, but not Damarius Owens. The Li’l Irish center had already blocked three shots and been the stopper at the back of Aquinas’ zone, but he saw the chance for one more.
As a layup was scooped toward the backboard, Owens got there first and smacked it off the glass — an emphatic exclamation point on the Li’l Irish’s regular season.
“Whenever you get a player as special as (Owens), you definitely trust him,” Aquinas head coach John McCauley said. “… What he’s doing for us on the defensive end, that was the key to the whole zone.”
With Owens’ interior presence leading the way, Aquinas swept its season series with rivals McQuaid with a 59-47 win Friday. In addition to his four blocks, Owens tied for a team-high with 13 points that was matched by Jack Bleier. The win pushes Aquinas’ record to 7-3 on the season, good enough to clinch the No. 3 seed in Class AA.
“This was a big win for us,” McCauley said. “A definite confidence win for us… We like the direction where we’re going into the playoffs for sure.”
The first meeting between Aquinas and McQuaid this season gave hints toward how the second would play out. In that matchup, the Li’l Irish played man-to-man defense with a focus on double-teaming Knights point guard Keith Warren. They held Warren to five first-half points that night in jumping out to a big advantage.
That strategy was “exhausting,” Bleier said. It required constant blitzing of Warren by a player starting far away from the ball. McCauley devised a different approach for the rematch.
This time, it’d be zone defense for Aquinas, usually a 2-3. When Warren brought the ball up, both players at the top of the Li’l Irish zone pinched or fully double-teamed him to force a pass. If Warren aligned away from the ball, the whole zone shaded in his direction.
Just as in the first meeting, the gameplan worked — Warren scored a lone point in the first half and finished with seven.
“We gave shots up to other players,” Bleier said. “But as long as we knew where (Warren) was, I thought we’d be OK.”
Owens has keyed such defensive aggression both times the Li’l Irish and Knights have faced off. If Aquinas didn’t have an athletic, imposing shot blocker at the back of its defense, it couldn’t press up so high.
But with Owens, who acknowledged postgame that protecting the paint is his main defensive duty, the Li’l Irish can double team and jump passing lanes. Owens is often there to clean up.
“We put a lot of pressure on (Owens),” Bleier said. “… We’ve got a lot of trust in him because we know that he can get the job done.”
Offensively, Owens opened Aquinas’ scoring with a short floater inside. The Li’l Irish spread the scoring in the first half, with eight players getting in on the action before the break.
The balance was key because at the other end, Jordan Brongo and Joe Cairns were going to work for the Knights. Cairns took advantage of extra space due to the attention on Warren and hit five shots to total 12 points before the half. Brongo added eight with patience and tenacity in the paint.
“(Brongo) is a force,” McCauley said. “He is a force. He’s a fierce competitor. He was somebody that we talked about a lot… He does it the right way. He just carves out space and just goes after it.”
Jordan Brongo is working inside for @mcquaidbball. He’s already got two strong buckets to tie it at 7 for @mcquaidbball and now back to the line. @PickinSplinters pic.twitter.com/eO2LGFrwu0
— Billy Heyen (@BillyHeyen) March 5, 2021
Owens beat the halftime buzzer with a putback, but the Li’l Irish couldn’t pull away. Warren, Brongo and Cairns all contributed to keep the Knights within six at the end of three.
Up until that point, Bleier had been quiet. He often lets the game come to him, but when it’s tight late, he takes it on his shoulders to get a bucket.
In the fourth, he scored nine points — a corner 3, pull-up 2 and four foul shots.
“(Bleier’s) very aggressive,” Owens said. “He can shoot, he can do it all, man. He’s a great player.”
Then twice more, it was Owens sealing the victory. First, Wesley Henderson lobbed up an alley-oop that Owens threw down with two hands. And Owens followed that up with a dish to Myles Blackwood that began an 8-0 finishing run for the Li’l Irish.
Thrown up by @buckets_wes, thrown down by @DamariusOwens1 for @AQBoys_Hoops. @PickinSplinters pic.twitter.com/RXygo9FcXQ
— Billy Heyen (@BillyHeyen) March 6, 2021
Aquinas had lost its previous game on Monday to The Park School. The Li’l Irish could’ve entered sectionals on a two-game losing streak.
Instead, for the second-straight year, Aquinas won its regular season finale. That didn’t lead to glory in 2020, with a very young Li’l Irish squad falling in the first round to Fairport.
This year’s Aquinas squad might not be old, but they’re more experienced. Bleier, Blackwood and Henderson all started last season, too. Mykel White was a key bench contributor. Owens is the new guy but has turned into as big a game changer as any of them. Together, they’re feeling good about their chances.
“It’s my first sectionals, but I’m ready to fight,” Owens said. “I’m ready to get it on.”
Scoring totals
Aquinas: Damarius Owens (13), Jack Bleier (13), Myles Blackwood (9), Will Scanlon (7), Robert McCullough (6), Mason Blackwood (4), Mykel White (4), Wesley Henderson (3)
McQuaid: Joe Cairns (16), Jordan Brongo (15), Keith Warren (7), Colin Bavibidila (4), Ryan Broderick (3), Alex Hintz (2)
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