With the St. Mary's Eagles in serious foul trouble, Tyreak Farquharson knew his team needed a boost.After going scoreless in the first half, Farquharson poured in 20 second-half points, including 11 points in about a three minute stretch over the third and fourth quarters as the Eagles pulled away and then held off a furious St. David comeback down the stretch in a 64-57 D8 Junior championship victory at St. Mary's on Monday evening.
All three regular-season meetings were decided by 10 points or less, and this one appeared to be no different in the early going as St. David took a 14-11 lead after one, followed by the Eagles turning that around to a 2-point lead in their favour (29-27) at halftime.
Joshua Maligaya poured in 5 quick points for St. Mary's to start the third quarter, helping them get a bit of breathing room and a 6-point lead. However, shortly thereafter, starter Raiden Thorne fouled out with about 3 minutes left in the third quarter, and one of the Eagles' other key offensive threats, Kanayo Nnadi, picked up his fourth.
Cue the Tyreak Farquharson show.
Farquharson started by drilling a buzzer-beating (deep) three-pointer to give St. Mary's a 45-37 lead after three. After Brent Lasovich opened the fourth quarter scoring for St. David with a three-pointer, Farquharson then went on a personal 8-0 run for St. Mary's, helping them extend to a 53-40 lead early on in the fourth.
However, that didn't quite put away the Celtics, who had a late run in them.
After the score was 56-42 (the Eagles largest of the game), St. David went on a 6-0 run to quickly cut things down to single digits and under 3 minutes to go.
They chipped another couple points off the deficit, and made it 58-52 with 1:30 to go, before a St. Mary's turnover and a subsequent Jahnei Powell three-pointer for SDCSS got the Celtics to within three.
St. Mary's inbounds went off the backboard (out of bounds), their third consecutive turnover, which gave St. David the ball back and around a minute to go.
The Celtics' Brent Lasovich, who had a tremendous game (more on that later), had a pretty good look at a game-tying three-pointer but it went off the rim, and the Eagles would eventually secure the victory at the free-throw line en route to the 7-point win.
After the game, Farquharson said that he had the confidence to help his team pull through with the win.
"Thanks to our coaching staff, the team was able to stay as one unit and play through the foul trouble by keeping our confidence and playing together because they put us in a mind frame to keep cool and stay composed," Farquharson said.
When asked about his 20-point second half outburst, Farquharson knew his team was counting on him.
"I was just hungry to get this 'W' in the first place and after (the) missed shots in the first half, I just kept cool and came through in tough times for my team as I knew they were depending on me after the foul trouble with two of our other key players," he said.
Alongside Farquharson's 20 points, Jason Jaros (13) and Joshua Maligaya (12) were also in double-figures for St. Mary's. Kanayo Nnadi added 7, while also scoring for the Eagles were Gew Chuol (4), Raiden Thorne (3), Jody Brown (3), and Michael Carali (2).
For St. David, Brent Lasovich was a one-man wrecking crew, displaying an impressive mid-range game in particular at the junior level en route to a game-high 32 points. The other St. David starters combined for the remaining Celtic points --- Jahnei Powell (7), Matthew Radocchia (7), Justin Henderson (6) and John Winnett (5).
The victory was St. Mary's fifth consecutive District 8 Junior Boys' championship, and they have advanced to play Centennial in a "AAAA" CWOSSA play-in game on Wednesday in Guelph. A win in that game would advance them to this weekend's tournament in Brantford.
St. David will also advance to CWOSSA, at the AAA level. That tournament is also this weekend, and is co-hosted by Our Lady of Lourdes and St. James in Guelph.
Linescore
SDCSS 14-13-10-20 = 57
SMHS 11-18-16-19 = 64
(Below is read as: FG-A FT-A PTS)
St. David (57)
B. Lasovich 10-24 10-14 32, J. Winnett 2-5 1-4 5, J. Powell 3-5 0-0 7, M. Radocchia 3-8 1-4 7, J. Henderson 2-7 2-2 6, G. Martin 0-1 0-0 0.
Three Point Goals: B. Lasovich 2, J. Powell 1.
St. Mary's (64)
R. Thorne 1-2 0-0 3, K. Nnadi 3-10 1-2 7, J. Maligaya 3-6 5-6 12, T. Farquharson 7-11 4-4 20, J. Brown 1-3 0-0 3, J. Jaros 6-9 0-0 13, M. Carali 1-1 0-0 2, T. Whitely 0-1 0-0 0, G. Chuol 2-2 0-0 4.
Three-Point Goals: T. Farquharson 2, R. Thorne 1, J. Maligaya 1, J. Jaros 1.
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