Fast start enough to lift St. Louis
Published 11:55 am Tuesday, November 25, 2014
The St. Louis Saints used a strong start to secure an opening-round 60-46 victory over Baton Rouge Career Academy Monday evening to tipoff the Whitney Bank/St. Louis Catholic Classic tournament.
The Saints (1-1) will meet Washington-Marion today at 7 p.m. with a place in the championship game on the line. The Charging Indians beat Jennings 94-57 in a later game.
The two teams met last week in the season opener with the Indians pulling out a late 79-77 comeback win.
To open their game with the Eagles on Monday the Saints used five early points from Kelvin Henry to steal all of the momentum.
Christian Fontenot and P.J. Hardy combined for 12 more points to end the first quarter with a 19-0 lead.
The Saints kept the strong start going in the second quarter to enter halftime with a 35-4 lead.
“The first half effort was really good, especially on defense,” St. Louis head coach Rick Lebato said. “We did a good job and our intensity level was very good.”
On the defensive end, Hardy had four steals in the half while sophomore post player Sam Bruchhaus added a pair of big blocks. Henry would finish the half with six rebounds, all on the defensive glass.
The Eagles came alive in the second half, opening the third quarter with a 15-2 run, putting themselves back into the game. Guard Kasey Stone scored 11 points in the quarter to cut the St. Louis lead to 41-26 heading into the final eight minutes.
“They beat us in the second half, luckily we had built a really good lead,” Lebato said. “(BRCA) played much better. They did a good job of getting the ball into the right spots.”
The Saints responded in the fourth quarter, matching the Eagles basket-for-basket to pull out their first win of the season.
Hardy finished the night with 15 points and six steals.
“P.J. did a good job of trying to keep us balanced and put us into an offensive rhythm,” Lebato said. “It got a little chaotic when we started rotating guys in, but he did a good job.”
Fontenot scored a game-high 23 points while Henry finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 10 points and nine boards.
Stone led the way for the Eagles with 15 points while center Tyrrell Evans netted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
