Red-hot St. Mary’s downs Blue Dons
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WEIRTON -- St. Mary's, the No. 2 seed in Region 1, built a big halftime lead only to see a scrappy Madonna team creep back into the game in the second half before winning 77-68 Friday night inside the Dube Dome for its 12th straight victory. It was the final regular season game for both teams.
The Blue Dons were down 41-29 at the half but came out strong to win the third quarter 17-14 and trailed the Blue Devils, 55-46, going into the final eight minutes. Madonna sophomore Lennon Dietrich came off the bench to drain a 3 to open the fourth quarter and, all of a sudden, the Blue Dons were behind by only six points at 55-49.
It was the closest they would get, as coach Mark Barnhart's Blue Devils refused the panic and met the challenge, nailing 13 of 17 free throws in the fourth quarter to end their regular season at 17-5.
Madonna, which made 10 three-pointers in the game, went to the foul line only eight times and made half of them. That was in stark contrast to St. Mary's 32 foul shots, making 24 of them.
"Our regular season record is not what we wanted for this time of the year. However, there are a lot of things that are correctable, and we're going to work on those things as we move forward," said veteran Blue Don coach, George Vargo, whose club finished the regular season at 9-13. "It is a one-game season right now. I told the kids that whatever happened today and (Thursday) is over with, and we're looking at one game next Tuesday, the start of the sectional tournament.
"What I'm happy about tonight is that I was able to play the whole bench. The kids deserve a chance to play especially when they come to practice every day. I like the way our players finished the game. We started sloppy again, but I'm happy with the way we finished."
Barnhart's son, Grant, spearheaded the Blue Devil offense, scoring a game-high 29 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Two other St. Mary's players scored in double figures. William Steele had 20 points, including 10 of 14 from the free-throw line, and senior Peyton Auxier scored 18.
"We warned our guys before we got here," Barmhart said. "We said, 'No matter it looks like in the early going this is a very difficult place to play.' Madonna always plays a very, very good Class A schedule with a lot of AAs on it, and the schools they play here in the upper Ohio Valley are good teams. So, we know what they are about. They are really good.
"When we saw that score to open the fourth quarter we knew we were in for a dog fight, especially in this building. But we answered the bell. We took a couple of timeouts there in the third quarter when they made runs. Our guys handled it well. They went back out and responded , handled the pressure and got some good looks at the basket. We knew that just getting the lead wasn't enough. They weren't going away. George (Vargo) has them well coached, well disciplined and they play strong. They have a young team that will be hard to handle in the future."
The Blue Dons were down by 17 at 51-34 with 4:27 left in the third period when Vargo got a timeout. His club returned to the floor with two straight field goals from jnior Lucky Pulice, who led the Blue Dons with 15 points, and senior Brennan Secrist. Now it was Barnhart's turn to take a time out.
However, it didn't slow the Blue Dons down. Secrist made a dunk off of a nice feed from Pulice, and the next time down the floor, Pulice put down a perfect bounce pass to senior Evan Boniti, who was streaking down the lane. Boniti was fouled and made the foul shot. Boniti finished with 14 points.
Another Barnhart timeout didn't stop the Madonna rush, as Pulice proved the first assist to Boniti was no fluke with another pretty pass to the flashing senior for two more. That onslaught left the Blue Dons trailing by six at 51-45.
The Blue Dons, however, couldn't duplicate a run like that in the fourth quarter and had to watch as the Blue Devils made those 10 free throws going down the stretch.
GAME NOTE
The St. Marys reserves downed the Blue Don jayvees, 73-66, in the preliminary game, with Leon Taylor scoring 22 points. Michael Burdine led the Blue Dons with 14.
UP NEXT
Both teams now head into sectional play with Madonna, the three seed in Region 1, Section 1 playing Cameron, the 2 seed Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Brooke High School. Wheeling Central is the top seed in Section 1, and it awaits the winner of a play-in game between between Valley and Hundred, which will be played today.
St. Marys 77, Madonna 68
St. Marys 21-20-14-22 -- 77
Madonna 12-17-17-22 -- 68
ST. MARYS (17-5): Morrison 0 3-4 3; Auxier 7 2-2 11; Miller 0 0-2 0; Barnhart 10 6-6 29; Steele 4 10-14 20; Long 1 1-2 3; Dornon 1 2-2 4. TOTALS: 13, 24-32: 77. 3-POINT GOALS: 7 (Barnhart 3, Auxier 2, Steele 2). REBOUNDS: 30 (Barnhart 13). TURNOVERS: 9.
MADONNA (9-13): Secrist 3 0-3 6; Quering 1 0-0 2; Arlia 1 0-0 3; Boniti 5 1-1 14; Moore 2 0-0 6; Dietrich 1 0-0 3; Burdine 2 2-3 6; Amaismeier 2 0-0 6; Pulice 7 1-1 15; Bone 3 0-0 7. TOTALS: 27, 4-8: 68. 3-POINT GOALS: 10 (Boniti 3, Moore 2, Amaismeier 2; Arlia, Dietrich; Bone). REBOUNDS: 20 (Secrist 7). TURNOVERS 12.