St. Edward handles Hampshire

It was Pack the Place night at St. Edward on Saturday and the raucous overflowing home crowd sure got its moneys worth with a pair of victories from the girls and boys varsity teams.

Despite a slow start the boys team overcame an early deficit and walked away with a 57-42 nonconference win over Hampshire inside the newly dedicated Fr. Edward J. Seisser Gymnasium.

Kelvin Cortez-Harvey and Sean Phelan each had 18 points to lead the Green Wave.

"It was a heckuva an atmosphere," St. Edward coach PJ White said. "It was a great experience for the kids and fans saw a couple of great games. I take it everyone here had some fun tonight."

St. Edward fell behind 10-2 early, but rallied back with a 9-0 run to grab an 11-10 lead early in the second quarter. The game was then tied four times before the Green Wave took a 24-20 lead just before the half on a pair of baskets by Phelan, who paced St. Edward with 10 points in the first half.

"We just stayed patient and that was the key," Phelan said. "We took good care of the basketball and kept working for the open shot. The fans were amazing. It was packed. I've never seen anything like it."

The Green Wave (11-9) extended the lead to double digits, 37-27, heading into the fourth quarter. The Whip-Purs managed to get back to within 6 points early in the fourth quarter, but St. Edward put it away with 10-of-10 free throw shooting, including 8-of-8 by Cortez-Harvey down the stretch.

"We played very smart tonight," Cortez-Harvey said. "And when we play smart we can be a deadly team. We just concentrated on having good possessions every time down the court."

The Green Wave shot 22-of 42 (52 percent) from the field and limited their turnovers to just 8.

"We didn't want to get in a too much of a running game with them," White said. "So we tried to spread their big guys out in the half court to get some backdoor cuts and just picked our spots when to run."

Hampshire (4-13) shot just 15-of-45 (33 percent) from the field. Nathan Cork led the Whip-Purs in scoring with 18 points.

"We had a good start," said Hampshire coach Ben Whitehouse. "But when they picked up their defense we had a tough time getting to the basket."