The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE the St Bede’s Crushers remained winless, St Francis/Joseph Shockers needed overtime to win their first game in the Catholic Diocesan Primary Schools basketball league.

On Wednesday at Loyola Hall, St Bede’s fell behind 16-4 after the first quarter and trailed the St Cecilia’s Strikers the rest of the way in the first of a double header. The Strikers, however, went on to pull off the victory with a 37-26 decision to improve their record to 2-1.

In the feature game, St Francis/Joseph finally broke through with a 37-29 decision over St Thomas More Sparks to pick up their first win in three games. The loss, on the other hand, ruined St Thomas More’s perfect record through their first two games of the season.

Trenton Smith and Adrian Curry both scored nine for the Shockers, coached by Devon Johnson. Devon Martin had a game high 16 in the loss for the Sparks, coached by N’Komo Ferguson.

Strikers 37, Crushers 26

Daunte Stuart scored a game high 14 points and Sean Riley added 10 to help seal the victory for St Cecilia’s.

In fact, Stuart and Riley combined for 12, scoring seven and five respectively, as the Strikers struck for an early 16-4 lead at the end of the first quarter. Jordan Freemantle came up with seven in the second quarter as the Crushers went on a 7-6 spurt to trim the deficit to 22-11.

But in the third, both teams ended up with 10 points as Stuart led the way for St Cecilia’s with six and Blaize Darling had seven for St Bede’s.

The two teams also scored five points apiece in the fourth as the Strikers held on for the win.

“It was a pretty good game. I’m happy because we’re finally getting to gel,” said Strikers’ coach Leo Delaney. “I think as the season goes on, they are going to get better. In the first quarter, we opened up a big lead and we maintained it. I was really happy with our defense. The first two games, we didn’t do so well, but now they are coming around. This is a long season and so anything can win it. It’s just who’s gelling at the end will pull it off.”

Crushers’ coach Ricardo Freemantle said it was another disappointing performance.

“We didn’t play well on defense at all,” he said. “We missed some easy fast breaks and lay-ups. We missed about eight clear lay-ups, some of them coming in one quarter. That is why we ended up losing by 11. We just have to play better defense and get more of the guys involved offensively.”

Jordan Freemantle led St Bede’s with 13 points and Blaize Darling chipped in with nine.