St. Anne’s-Belfield got off to a great start and closed strong. It was just the middle part that gave the Saints fits. With Fork Union knocking down one 3-pointer after another, the Blue Devils were up by double digits midway through the fourth. Then Parker Morris caught fire to tie things up. With FUMA having little luck on the other end of the court, the Saints saw Javin Montogmery-DeLaurier get a friendly bounce on a floater with 1.9 seconds left. After a successful defense of the Blue Devils last ditch effort, STAB claimed an important 58-56 win.
“Coming back was really more about defense on the other end, rebounding especially,” said Saints coach Brian Kent. “They were killing us on the boards. Usually we’re better than we were tonight, but because (FUMA’s) so athletic, we knew they were going to crash and they did. So we went at it one possession at a time to deal with the adversity. We’ve dealt with some this year and I told the guys ‘Let’s figure this out, this game is still in your hands.’”
The game started out as a track meet between the two with the Saints taking a 9-3 lead early in the first and going up by as much as 27-16 in the middle of the second, with most the points coming in transition. However Fork Union weathered the storm and with Lewis Freeman, Jared Armstrong and Sam Allen, chipped away at the lead en route to a 12-0 run to take a 1-point lead.
“We started hitting our shots and so we had a really good second quarter,” said Fork Union coach James Pelham. “Our guys dug in and did really well rebounding so that gave us a lot of momentum going into the third quarter.”
The Saints reclaimed a 32-31 lead going into the break, but FUMA’s 3-point shooting put the Blue Devils up 43-34 mid third quarter as STAB struggled with turnovers. With a 10-point lead and a just over three minutes to play, momentum swung heavily in St. Anne’s favor.
“We try and stay positive and once we hit a couple of shots the fans really got it into it,” Morris said. “It seems like when they get into it we go on these runs.”
With Morris knocking down back-to-back three 3-pointers and the Blue Devils missing three straight layups, the lead all but evaporated to set up the furious finish with Montegomery-DeLaurier’s last second heroics.
“We definitely did not want to lose this game on senior night,” Morris said. “It was a real big win.”
Morris, a senior himself, poured in 25 points to lead all scorers was mobbed by the Saints fan base afterwards.
“He’s a rhythm shooter,” Kent said. “He’s a gamer. So at the end of the game he wanted the ball and he hit a big shot in the corner… He really put the game in his own hands tonight. He had his first dunk. I mean how great is that on senior night?”
Of those 25 points for Morris, 12 came on a quarter of 3-pointers including the two late in the fourth. Montgomery-DeLaurier added 11 points and eight rebounds. Jalen Harrison chipped in eight points and six rebounds.
For FUMA, Freeman and Armstong both finished with 15 points and both hit a trio of 3-pointers. Freeman also had seven rebounds and four assists. Aundre Hyatt had seven points and nine rebounds. Adisa Gittens-Smith led the team defensively with four steals.
“That was two good teams just going at it,” Pelham said. “You had two teams on a streak. They just made more plays in the fourth quarter than we could.”
STAB travels to St. Christopher’s while Fork Union hosts Collegiate, both games on Saturday.
