Article & Photo By: Bill DoucetSo the St. Benedict Saints make the District 8 senior boys’ basketball playoffs and what’s their present?
A semifinal matchup with the 11-1 Resurrection Phoenix. That’s like your aunt knitting you a sweater for Christmas. Thanks, but no thanks.
The Saints (6-6) assured their spot in the final four on Wednesday with a 73-25 win over the winless Monsignor Doyle Mustangs at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School.
The games was pretty much over at halftime, with the Saints holding a 37-14 lead, so it was hard for them not to be thinking about their playoff matchup against one of the two powerhouse teams in D8, if not the region.
“We’re trying to get ready for our playoff game against Rez next Wednesday, so we came out strong and we wanted to make sure we played exactly how we want to when we play Resurrection,” said the Saints’ Keiran Senior, who had seven points against the Mustangs. “We played Resurrection on Monday and we just stuck to the stuff we normally do.
“They don’t know the other things we have built up that we’ve been practicing and will show them next game.”
Saints head coach John Malnerich agreed that St. Benedict was out to try some things against Monsignor Doyle that they have been working on in practice and also learned playing some high calibre teams in a weekend tournament.
“We didn’t try to run up the score or anything like that. We were just doing our thing and doing the best we can,” Malnerich said.
“We came into do some things and we got against to practice it against actual opponents."
The one thing they will have to do against Resurrection, which worked perfectly against the Mustangs, is be aggressive under the basket. The Saints rebounding was almost flawless against Monsignor Doyle at both ends of the court.
“That’s one of the main things, we have to control the glass. They have the inside presence of (Mike) Pereira and (Cory) Kenning there, they’re huge. You have to keep them off the glass,” Malnerich said.
One thing the Saints did show was an ability to keep pressure on their opponents in the third quarter, tacking on 19 points and allowing only six. The third quarter has been their Achilles heel against Rez.
“I think it’s more of mental thing,” Senior said.
"The two times we played them we played well in the first half and then in the second half we’d just drop off and they’d end up killing us. I think it’s just mental toughness to keep flowing after that half time.”
Malnerich is hoping that the Phoenix takes his team lightly and they can sneak in for the upset.
"Hopefully, they don’t respect us and we can pull something off,” he said.
“The main thing is to get to the playoffs and anything can happen.”
All 10 of the Saints scored against Monsignor Doyle, with Kuith Geng leading the way with 15 points and Tevin Heath dropping 14.
Retrieved From: http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/sports/article/953157--saints-getting-ready-for-rez
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