Senior Boys: Eagles Give Thon Maker, Jamal Murray & Orangeville Prep A Run In Front of Raucous Crowd

After seeing some of the beatings that Orangeville Prep had put on opposition (including a 110-44 drubbing of highly-regarded St. John Kilmarnock), it was being billed as a "David vs. Goliath" match-up.

....it was anything but as the CWOSSA #1-ranked St. Mary's Eagles more than held their own in an exciting 84-75 game hosted by SMHS.

As one might have expected, the Eagles were a bit nervous (or perhaps "over-hyped") coming out and quickly found themselves in an 8-0 hole.  However, just as quickly, they found their footing and kept up with O-Prep for the remainder of the opening stanza (14-14) to trail by 8 (22-14) after one.

The momentum had swung to the Eagles by the second quarter, as they rode the wave of crowd support to cut things to within 4:

Telloy Simon's 3-pointer drops & is fouled. Momentum in St. Mary's favour right now. Orangeville Prep lead down to 26-22.
— Barry Hayes (@hoopstarscanada) December 19, 2014

Crowd support off the charts in here. 519 rocking. 18-12 O Prep ahead early 1st Q
— Sonny Bairos (@sonnybairos) December 19, 2014

A mini-run by Orangeville Prep got them back up to double-digits (36-26) at halftime.

The strong play by the Eagles, and Jermaine Lyle in particular, continued in the third quarter, as the Eagles again chipped into the O-Prep lead.

Jermaine Lyle has been very strong for St. Mary's tonight. Hitting shots, finding open men, defending. It's 46-39 O-Prep midway through 3rd.
— Barry Hayes (@hoopstarscanada) December 19, 2014

With the score 48-40, a missed Eagle dunk led to a Josiah Riley three-ball and was quickly followed up by Kitchener native Jamal Murray with a dunk of his own.  This was part of a big O-Prep run that pushed the lead to 60-43 after three.

St. Mary's, however, wouldn't quit.  They went on a 15-4 run early on in the 4th that helped trim O-Prep's lead back down to 69-58.

Thon Maker, then, provided a couple of highlights to get his squad back up by double digits.  He hit a 12-foot fadeaway jumper off one foot and then converted this backboard alley-oop from Jahvon Blair in succession:



Still, St. Mary's didn't fold and cut things as close as 7 down the stretch, before falling by an 84-75 final.

In his homecoming, Kitchener native Jamal Murray led the way for O-Prep with a 21-point performance, while Thon Maker netted 17 points.

Tesloth Simon had a game-high 23 points for the Eagles, while Jermaine Lyle had 13.

Needless to say, the Eagles certainly earned the respect of their opponents.  Orangeville Prep Head Coach Larry Blunt had the following to say on Twitter after the game:

Special thanks to St. Mary's for a well played game and amazing atmosphere. Much respect. Best of luck the rest of the year. @AI_OvillePrep
— Larry Blunt (@CoachBlunt) December 19, 2014

It was an amazing night of basketball and we'd be remiss without doing a "shout-out" to the St. Mary's community, staff and coaches (Coaches Hergott & Roth in particular) for helping to set up what will surely go down as a memorable evening for both players and fans that were in attendance.