Walther Lutheran runs past St. Edward
The St. Edward boys basketball team didn’t want to play a fast-paced game Tuesday night against Walther Lutheran.
It happened though and it cost the Green Wave.
The Broncos picked up the pace late in the first quarter to rally from an 18-9 deficit to beat the host Green Wave, 75-54.
“I’m blaming myself because what we talked about this week was this was a team we didn’t want to run with,” St. Edward coach P.J. White said. “We wanted to slow it down. When we slowed it down and ran an offense then we scored. When we tried to run with them, we didn’t score and they did.”
St. Edward (17-5) started well. The Broncos (10-10) led 7-6 with 5 minutes remaining in the first quarter. Antonio Domel had a 4-point play and baskets from Davontae Elam and Nick Duffy in just over a 1-minute span gave the Green Wave a 14-7 lead. Following a Walther Lutheran basket from Jon Fuqua, Adrian Ponce and Elam scored again to take an 18-9 lead with 2:21 remaining in the first quarter.
Walther Lutheran scored the final 7 points of the quarter and tied the game on a KC McNeil basket 32 seconds into the second. The game was tied 28-28 with 3:42 remaining in the first half. The Broncos scored 11, including 7 from Fuqua, of the final 13 points of the first half to take a 39-30 lead at halftime.
“We knew what type of team they had coming in. I think our pressure got to them a little bit,” Broncos coach Al Lainio said of St. Edward. “We put the full-court pressure on. I don’t think they handled it very well.”
The Green Wave slowed the pace again early in the third quarter and cut the deficit to 43-42 with 4:10 remaining in the third. Again the Broncos quickened the game, going on a 6-0 run, and led by 11, 55-44, with 45 seconds to go in the quarter. St. Edward wouldn’t get closer than 9 in the fourth quarter.
“In the third quarter we started playing well. They called a good timeout (43-32),” White said. “They picked up the pressure. We tried to run with them again. We just couldn’t do it.”
Fuqua led all scorers with 32. The senior also had 12 rebounds. Najee Toomer and Justin Mack each added 8 points for the Broncos.
Ponce scored 14 points to led the Green Wave. Domel added 11 and Duffy and Elam each had 10.