By Logan Riddick / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
The lone senior among the St. Anne’s-Belfield’s regular starting five, forward Sam Lorenzo made the most of his final home game.
“We’ve been talking about getting the ball inside, and we really did it tonight,” said Lorenzo, who turned in a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. “(I’m a) senior, last game here, so it was definitely a fun way to end it here and move forward.”
With STAB’s early advantage cut to 13-11, Lorenzo’s inside bucket-and-one at the 3:07 mark of the first quarter sparked a 14-5 run into the second. The Saints were happy to match their visitors’ preferred fast pace, as transition offense yielded huge dunks for Javin Montgomery-DeLaurier and Jalen Harrison and four starters in double figures en route to a 85-54 win over Hargrave Military Academy in the first round of the VISAA Division II Tournament.
“[Hargrave] plays a fast game, and I think we were ready for that,” said St. Anne’s-Belfield coach Brian Kent. “Once they put the press and we had the numbers or advantage situations, we got to the glass. I think we were nine-for-nine in the first quarter going to the basket.”
STAB opened a 7-2 lead on a back-door lay-in by sophomore guard Kareem Johnson which prompted a quick timeout.
“Clearly when we got off the bus, we were a little bit flat and didn’t get off to a good start,” said Hargrave coach Tim Oditt.
Tiger seniors Jason Fields and Keon McIntosh matched dunks later in the first, while junior guard Tyler Chisholm hit his fourth three-pointer to pull within 29-22 early in the second quarter. Chisholm would be shut out the rest of the night, however.
“I think they did a great job defensively with [Tyler] and made an adjustment to crowd him and make it difficult for him to get a shot off,” Oditt said.
From there, STAB closed the half on a 15-4 run and never looked back. The lead hit 30 late in the third when Lorenzo connected from long-range.
“I’ve been struggling a little bit from three-point range, so it was nice to just knock one down,” said Lorenzo.
Johnson led the Saints with a game-high 21 points. Montgomery-DeLaurier added 16 and four blocks. Harrison rounded out the double-figure scoring with 10. Fields led Hargrave (14-8) with 20 points.
STAB (15-9, #7 seed) travels to #2-seed Carlisle School for a quarterfinal matchup on Wednesday at 6:00.
