FEB. 17
CATHOLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
Carroll 53, La Salle 49
  On Wednesday night I took in O’Hara/C-E in a PCL 1st-round playoff that featured an extremely lackluster first three quarters before erupting into a down-to-the-wire-dandy. O’Hara won that game and ended a drama-filled final quarter with a buzzer-beating three-pointer for the win. Tonight, it was little bit of the same. No buzzer-beaters to end it, but a sensational fourth quarter nonetheless. Let’s back-track a little to set the stage. Using solid defensive concepts the Pats kept the Explorers at bay for the first the first 21 minutes of action. A three-pointer by freshman 6’6” F Derrick Jones helped expand a nine-point halftime lead to, 32-17, with three minutes left in the third quarter. The Pats were in control and the perimeter-oriented Explorers were a wintry 6-for-24 from the field at this point. As the game moved through the final stanza the Explorers were able to slice some of the deficit off of Carroll’s lead, but you still didn’t have a sense that they had a serious run in them. Then it happened! Trailing, 44-35, with 3:41 left, jr. PG Amar Stukes deposited a trey off a pass from sr. G Matt Murphy to cut the lead to six. Carroll’s jr. CG Isaiah Warren hit the first of two free throws to push the lead back to seven, but moments later La Salle’s sr. CG Darnell Artis canned another trey off a pass from Stukes to cut the lead to four. With La Salle forcing the issue defensively, Carroll missed a rushed shot at the other end, and as Stukes raced down court he found jr. 6’6” F Matt Rodden for yet another trey. LaSalle’s third triple in the last 43 seconds. Thus, shrinking Carroll’s lead to just, 45-44, with 2:58 to play. Up until this point the Explorers, who went wild from the arc in Wednesday’s 1st round win over Judge, had connected on just 3-of-15 attempts from way-beyond-land. Credit Carroll’s sticky defense for that. Still, better late than never, right? So, what happens when a team is making shots and is hot on your tails? Well, if you’re one of the team leaders and have been mostly quiet through the game, then it’s your turn to find an answer. And that’s exactly what Carroll’s sr. WG Alex Stavetski did. After dumping the ball inside to sr. F Lou Dominique, Stavetski quickly summoned for Dominique to toss it back out. Upon catching he had a smaller defender on him and for one of the few times in this game enough room to get a mostly clean look at a shot that he likes to take. Whap! Nothing but net, and the Pats now had a 48-44 lead with 2:03 left. Stukes would answer with a drive while being fouled at 1:54, but missed the freebie. On Carroll’s next possession they once again went to Stavetski, who came around a screen and neatly deposited a 16-foot left-wing jumper off a pass from jr. PG Yosef Yacob. Before these two HUGE shots by Stavetski he had just four points, on 2-for-5 shooting. Once again, but better late than never, right? Stavetski’s clutchness gave Carroll a 50-46 lead with 1:23 left. After this, La Salle failed on a one-and-one chance at 58.6. Yacob canned two free throws to push the lead back to six with 41 ticks left. La Salle still had a some fight in then, and drew within three on a left-corner three-pointer by jr. 6’6” Steve Smith with 23.8 left. After La Salle burned their final timeout, Yacob was immediately fouled. He connected on the second of two for a safer four-point lead. La Salle had three more attempts from the arc, but failed to connect before the final buzzer had sounded. The Patriots are headed to the PCL semifinals and the Palestra for the fourth straight season. If you told La Salle before the game that they would hold Stavetski and Yacob to a combined 20 points (Just 13 FG attempts), 10 below their combined league averages, then I think they would have felt very good about their chances. However, there are five players on the court at all times and when you’re involved in hotly-contested playoff games, then you need contributions from everyone. Head Coach Paul Romanczuk got just that from his three other starters, as well as a great team effort on the defensive end. The trio of Dominique, Jones, and Warren got Carroll off to a great start by scoring 13 of their teams 17 first quarter points. All total, this trio notched thirty points. Warren (10 pts., trio of 3’s) and Jones (8 pts., 12 boards, 2 blocks) combined to go 5-for-5 on 3’s. Dominique had a team-high 12 points (6-for-10 FG’s). The youngster Jones has interesting possibilities. He looked confident and relaxed on his two made threes, and is springy with long arms for a freshman.  Yacob finished with 11 points (5-for-6 FTs) and 5 assists, while Stavetski added 9 points and 4 boards. La Salle was led by Stukes, who scored 12 of his game-high 18 points (6-for-14 FG’s) in the fourth quarter. He also added 5 assists, 3 boards, and 2 steals. No other Explorer reached double-figures. Artis (3 steals) contributed nine points on three made triples. Jr. 6’4” F Ryan Winslow (nine) and Smith (eight) lead LaSalle on the backboard. Rodden added 7 points and 3 blocks. La Salle received no points from their bench on just one shot. La Salle shot 8-for-24 from the arc in the game. Also, they didn’t do themselves any favors by going just 5-for-12 from the line. Carroll will take on SJ Prep in one semifinal this coming Wednesday at the Palestra. These two teams wrapped up the regular season in a dandy that the Patriots won, 67-66, in double-OT. The other semifinal will feature three-time defending champs Neumann-Goretti versus Roman. These two teams also played an overtime affair during the regular season, as the Saints escaped with a 61-57 victory.