D8 Midget Final: St. Benedict 26, Resurrection 19

Jamal "Cash" Hajo was money at crunch time for the St. Benedict Saints.

Hajo poured in 16 points, and made four free-throws in the final minute as the St. Benedict Saints captured their first D8 Midget Boys title since the league was re-started (back in 2007-08) on Thursday evening with a 26-19 victory over the Resurrection Phoenix.

I'm giving Hajo the nickname "Cash" as he called that out several times while shooting his game-icing free-throws.

The Saints and Phoenix, the top two teams in the midget league who split their season series, started slowly, with Resurrection actually taking a 9-3 lead following some good work inside by Nik Potvin and a three-pointer from David Sigmund.

However, Hajo came back the other way with some big baskets to give the Saints some confidence, and a 13-3 run over the remaining ten minutes of the first half gave SBCSS a 16-12 halftime edge.

Both teams struggled offensively in the second half, with the Saints maintaining their slim lead throughout.  The Saints led by 5 (22-17) with about 4:00 to go, and over the course of the next couple of minutes, Rez had numerous cracks from close range that just would not go down.

In fact, a missed Rez lay-up with 1:16 to go (and the score still 22-17) led to a Saint fast-break, where Hajo was fouled (intentionally) and "cashed" both of his free-throw attempts to put SBCSS up 24-17.

However, they weren't out of the woods just then, as Rez stole the inbounds pass and a Tyler Riehl jumper kept Rez alive (24-19).  A turnover off of the inbounds gave Rez another crack at it, but they could not convert and Hajo iced the game in the waning seconds from the line for St. Benedict.

Zach Soltis added 4 for St. Benedict, while Rez was led by Nik Potvin (8) and Tyler Riehl's 4.

Sidenote:  The midget league is played with two 20:00 "running time" halves, with the final 2:00 of each half as "stop time".  I had posted incorrect information yesterday, where I said the halves were 25:00 in length.

RCSS    12-07 = 19

SBCSS  16-10 = 26

RCSS

D. Sigmund      1-3 FG, 0-0 FT, 2 Reb, 0 Ast - 3 Pts.

K. Santolini      1-6 FG, 0-0 FT, 4 Reb, 0 Ast - 2 Pts.

T. Riehl            2-8 FG, 0-0 FT, 4 Reb, 0 Ast - 4 Pts.

N. Potvin         4-9 FG, 0-3 FT, 6 Reb, 1 Ast - 8 Pts.

N. Snider         0-7 FG, 0-0 FT, 7 Reb, 3 Ast - 0 Pts.

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P. Beaulieu       0-2 FG, 0-0 FT, 2 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

L. Gomez         0-3 FG, 1-2 FT, 2 Reb, 0 Ast - 1 Pt.

M. Klapperbn  0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 2 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

N. Radic          0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

A. McNeil       0-3 FG, 1-2 FT, 3 Reb, 0 Ast - 1 Pt.

P. McLaughlin  0-0 FG, 0-2 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

C. Jolkowski    0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

M. Viau           0-0 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

Field Goals:  8-41 (.195).  Free-Throws:  2-9 (.222).  Three-Point Goals:  1-4, .250:  D. Sigmund 1-1, T. Riehl 0-1, P. Beaulieu 0-1, L. Gomez 0-1.

SBCSS

Z. Soltis           2-4 FG, 0-0 FT, 2 Reb, 0 Ast - 4 Pts.

Brandon S.      1-5 FG, 0-0 FT, 5 Reb, 0 Ast - 2 Pts.

J. Hajo           5-11 FG, 6-7 FT, 4 Reb, 0 Ast - 16 Pts.

Evan P.            1-4 FG, 0-5 FT, 2 Reb, 1 Ast - 2 Pts.

E. Dixon           0-1 FG, 0-2 FT, 5 Reb, 1 Ast - 0 Pts.

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R. Amade         0-1 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

G. Lachance     0-2 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

Chetan K.        0-2 FG, 0-0 FT, 2 Reb, 0 Ast - 0 Pts.

Alex Z.             1-4 FG, 0-0 FT, 0 Reb, 0 Ast - 2 Pts.

Field Goals:  10-34 (.294).  Free-Throws:  6-12 (.500).  Three-Point Goals:  0-6, .000 (J. Hajo 0-1, E. Dixon 0-1, Chetan K. 0-2, Alex Z. 0-2).