St Mary’s 68
Brophy 60
By Henry Erlandson ’16
THE ROUNDUP
Brophy mounted a strong comeback in the final two minutes of the game Jan. 20, but it was not enough to beat rival St. Mary’s away, making their record 8-9.
Brophy struggled all night to stop St. Mary’s from grabbing offensive rebounds, especially in the first quarter when the Knights scored 10 of their first 13 points from offensive rebounds.
“Rebounding has been something that we’ve talked about quite a bit in the last few weeks,” said coach Mr. Matt Hooten. “It seems like the games where we come out on top are the games where we rebound well and where we limit rebounds from the opposition.”
St. Mary’s began the game on defense with full court pressure on the Broncos, which they played for the rest of the game.
Brophy trailed at the end of the first quarter by one with four points coming from Ian Burke ’18.
Burke, who finished with 11 points, was able to tie the game at 23 late in the second quarter by knocking down a three off of an assist from Matthew Kempton ’17. The Broncos ended the first half with a 26-25 lead.
“We have a lot of desire and we took a lot of pride in tonight’s game because it was a rivalry game for us,” said Ryan Meza ’17.
Brophy began a back-and-forth third quarter with a Kempton three pointer off of a pass from guard Carter Beaulieu ’16.
Beaulieu converted an old-fashioned three point play for the Broncos with 2:43 remaining in the quarter to give Brophy a 42-39 lead; however, St. Mary’s made a last second layup to grab the lead heading into the fourth quarter.
St. Mary’s appeared to be pulling away with the game early in the quarter after they pushed their lead to seven, but a combination of eight made free throws from Brophy and 11 points from Meza kept the Broncos alive to force overtime.
Burke nailed a contested layup at the buzzer to tie the game at 58.
“We are really proud of the way we fought in the fourth and we didn’t hang our head or roll over,” Mr. Hooten said. “That’s really been the character of the team throughout the season, we’ve believed that we have been in every game up until the final whistle, we fought back and made a couple of plays to get up by one.”
Meza continued his hot streak by scoring the first points in overtime immediately after the tip-off, but Brophy’s offense was unable to score for the rest of the game, losing to St. Mary’s by a finals score of 60-68.
Brophy will take on Liberty at home Friday, Jan. 22 looking to find their ninth win of the season.
