W-M takes second round against SLC
Published 9:32 am Wednesday, November 26, 2014
The second verse was the same as the first as Washington-Marion edged St. Louis for the second time in as many weeks, this time winning 79-74 in the semifinals of the St. Louis/Whitney Bank Classic.
W-M will face Sulphur in the championship game at 7 p.m. tonight. St. Louis will play Vandebilt Catholic in the third place game at 5:30 p.m.
Jeremiah Warren led W-M with 23 points, including 10 in the first quarter as the Charging Indians raced out to an early 18-9 lead. Christian Fontenot scored a game-high 31 points to lead St. Louis.
Fontenot scored 12 points in the second quarter as St. Louis narrowed a 13-point deficit to seven at halftime.
St. Louis (1-2) opened the second half with a 6-2 burst to pull within three points, but never got any closer. Warren scored eight points in the third quarter as W-M stretched the lead back to six by the end of the quarter.
The Charging Indians (3-0) put the game out of reach by scoring seven straight points in the fourth quarter to extend their lead to 12 points. Joshua Porche scored 11 of his 13 points for W-M in the fourth quarter.
St. Louis turned the ball over eight times in the first quarter to dig itself an insurmountable hole.
“We played good defense, we were trying to keep (Fontenot and Kelvin Henry of St. Louis) from going off on us,” said W-M head coach Albert Hartwell.
“We kept getting suckered in on (Fontenot’s) jump shots. We had to try to figure out who could guard him. We mixed-and-matched it on him with some height and length and that made some difference. He still got a few good baskets.”
Henry scored 21 points for St. Louis. P.J. Hardy added 16. Jeremiah Ellis scored 10 for W-M.
Hartwell said his team is still developing.
“We are still learning how to play, we have a long way to go,” he said. “We just got the football players and are trying to get everyone on the same page. We are trying to get the guards to play with some continuity. We are still winning. We are playing hard, all we can try to do is deal with what we got.”
In the first semifinal, Sulphur rallied from a halftime deficit to beat Vandebilt Catholic 55-41. Gavin Richard led Sulphur with 12 points. Jalen Benton added 11 and Derrick Gallien scored 10.
Rick Hickman
