There’s no question that when St. Anne’s-Belfield finds itself playing in that extra gear, it’s tough to keep up with. And that’s exactly what the Saints showed to finish the first and second half in their home meeting with Woodberry Forest. To close the first, STAB’s Javin Montgomery-DeLaurier finished a perfectly executed alley-oop. The second half ended with Jalen Harrison finding Montgomery-DeLaurier for a breakaway dunk, and the Saints earning a charge on the following play defensively to officially put the game out of reach.
“At any point in basketball, the other team can always come back,” said STAB assistant coach Bryan Lynch (head coach Brian Kent was unable to attend the game because of a personal matter). “But once we got our energy level up, we were able to finish the game.”
The Saints walked away with a 67-55 win thanks to the boost they had to finish the fourth, and they needed it because Woodberry, after a tough finish to the first quarter and opening of the second, simply would not go away in the third and fourth. Trailing 40-22 at the break, the Tigers clawed their way back into the contest midway through the fourth, getting to within six points of the lead as Clark Yarbourgh scored seven straight points for the Tigers in that stretch.
“Third quarters have been killing us recently, so we talked about that a lot,” said Woodberry coach Craig Dawson. “I was really proud of the way the guys played in the second half. STAB got 22 in just the first quarter, but 27 in the second half. So you take your hat off to them the way they started the game, but there are a lot of positives we can still take things away from this game.”
Unfortunately for the Tigers, who managed to edge the Saints early in the season, STAB wasn’t letting this one slip away. Parker Morris knocked down a 3-pointer right after the Tigers got to within six to provide a 9-point advantage. Then with 30 seconds left on the clock, Montgomery-DeLaurier made it a double-digit lead again and the Saints hustled back on defense before earning the ball back on a charge.
The first half was even to start with Woodberry going up 9-8 midway through the frame, but the Saints ripping off 20-5 run between the end of the first and beginning of the second, led largely by Kareem Johnson who had 13 first half points.
“We’re playing really well in the first half right now, but we need to work on playing stronger in the second,” Lynch said. “Offensively we’re usually pretty good and that’s in large part because Javin is drawing double-teams and opening things up for us.”
The Saints were in control from that point until the end of the third when the Tigers started to chip away at the lead.
Montgomery-DeLaurier led all scorers with 21 points while also pulling down 15 rebounds and coming up with five blocks.
“Tonight I was looking for stuff in transition, getting the good passing from my teammates helped,” Montgomery-DeLaurier said. “I think in the first half we really moved the ball well. A lot of our offense just came from setting each other up.”
Johnson finished with 17 points and was 7-for-8 from the free throw line. Harrison added 14 points and four rebounds. Morris hit all four of his 3-point attempts and knocked down a pair of free throws to finish with 14.
“He can absolutely spray,” Montgomery-DeLaurier said. “He’s a great shooting in rhythm, great teammate. It’s always nice having that shooter to space out a (zone defense).”
For the Tigers, Luke Neeley had 12 points. Max Johns and Hawk Swearingen both finished with 10. Yarbrough and Joe Foley each chipped in nine points.
Woodberry (8-7) host Collegiate on Thursday while STAB (13-5) travels to Christchurch on Friday.
