Late in the fourth quarter, Jayden Nixon recovered, never breaking stride and glided behind the driving St. Christopher’s player, leaping at just the right time to block a seemingly sure lay-in off the backboard without fouling.
“That right there, I just felt like we were going to win after that,” said St. Anne’s-Belfield’s Nic Kent.
It was exactly the defensive play STAB needed at exactly the right time and it helped propel St. Anne’s past St. Christopher’s 63-54.
It didn’t seem like it was trending that way during most of the third quarter as St. Chris erased STAB’s eight-point halftime lead with a big charge out of the locker room. Alexander Petrie, a Lafayette-bound senior guard, and Ameer Bennett helped spark St. Chris, with Petrie finishing with 20 points on the night while the 6-foot-8 Bennett had 11.
“They did a terrific job of hitting shots early which puts a lot of pressure on us to try and fight back,” said St. Chris coach Hamilton Jones. “I thought we fought really hard and played hard in the third quarter. We had good effort (throughout), we didn’t always play well consistently but the effort was good. St. Anne’s did a great job of having balance between making outside shots and driving the ball well.”
Near the end of the third though, Nic Kent, who finished with 11 points, elevated for his first in-game dunk, which electrified the home crowd and bench. Kent also had a nice stickback while Nixon kept attacking to start the fourth and STAB was able to re-assert control early in that final frame.
“Yeah I’ve been trying to get one and I wasn’t thinking I was going to dunk that one but I guess I got up high enough,” said Nic Kent of the dunk.
STAB’s defense stepped up down the stretch too beyond Nixon’s huge block, making Petrie work for everything he got while keeping the rest of the St. Chris lineup largely in check. STAB managed to scratch out a 33-21 advantage on the boards thanks in large part to Nixon despite giving up a lot of height to Bennett underneath. Nixon pulled down 11 rebounds to go with his game-high 21 points and complete a double double.
The defense got a boost from the bench with Messiah Woods and Isaiah Kilby-Sharp among the reserves that played some critical minutes.
“Since the Christmas Tournament we’ve really just locked in on the little things, the basic fundamental things,” said STAB coach Brian Kent. “Like finding your man and boxing out and really taking it personal when guys score on you. These guys play hard and I go fairly deep.”
Nic Kent finished with five steals to help spearhead the defensive effort while Nixon drew the unenviable task of marking Petrie.
“They’re a good team, they’ve got guys who can score and Petrie, (we) obviously had a lot of concern about him,” said Brian Kent. “The two times we lost him in the first half, just a little show on someone else, he hit two 3-pointers, he’s just that type of player. I thought Jayden really stepped up, he just did a heck of a job on him.”
Early on in the game, STAB built a 19-9 first quarter lead thanks to a barrage of 3-pointers from Nixon and Matt Palumbo who went 4-for-6 from beyond the arc including one from way outside in the opening minutes while posting 12 points. Dalton Taylor chipped in eight points for STAB and also had a pair of assists. Myles Ward had five rebounds on the night.
St. Christopher’s will look to bounce back against Woodberry Forest Tuesday while STAB will travel to take on Fork Union Saturday.
