Boys Basketball: St. Paul's Returns to Form Against Pallotti

After losing their last two games to Gilman and Glenelg Country School, St. Paul’s head coach Seth Goldberg told his team to treat the remaining two games in the schedule as if they were playoff games.

On Wednesday evening, the Crusaders were back in mid-season form, firing on all cylinders, easily defeating the visiting St. Vincent Pallotti Panthers, 66-47.

The Crusaders controlled the game's tempo from the get-go and kept a high intensity through its duration.

“I’m feeling really good, more so about the way we are playing right now than anything else,” Goldberg said. “These guys are beating each other up in practice. As long as these guys continue to do that, I’m going to be thrilled. It’s all about how we play.”

After suffering their worst defeat of the season at the hands of Glenelg, 71-44, it looked like the Crusaders had something to prove in Wednesday’s game. In a physical contest, St. Paul’s kept pressure on the Pallotti offense the whole game. The Panthers could do little but succumb to the Crusader press coughing up the ball, consequently leading to easy Crusader transition points.

“Our theme is just ‘earn it.’ Go out there and earn everything you can get,” Goldberg said. “We’re not a program that looks in the past, we don’t really think about what’s happened, we’re thinking about where we’re going. To me, I think this a great step for us in the right direction.”

St. Paul’s defense opened up scoring chances for many Crusaders. Three Crusaders finished in the double digits, led by junior guard Lamont Wade with 19 points, who created havoc for the Panthers in the back court and on the low post fighting for rebounds.

Wade, along with junior guard Tanner Brooks, provided an offensive boost for St. Paul’s in the first half, scoring 12 and 14 points respectively, helping the Crusaders to a 39-18 halftime lead.

Brooks provided a steady flow of offense from beyond the arc. He made four 3-pointers in the contest, three of which were included in his first half-high 14 points. Brooks finished with 18 points, while senior guard Nigel Sydnor added 13.

“I like to go hard on every play, just go hard and get the teammates involved and go hard and get the rebounds,” Wade said. “It comes with practice, working hard together and get in team mode and getting ready for the playoffs.”

With the MIAA B Conference playoffs beginning next Tuesday, the Crusaders have wrapped up the second seed, behind Glenelg’s first seed, looking to bring home the B Conference title for the second year in a row. Although the Crusaders only have one regular season game left against Annapolis Area Christian on Friday, there has not been much dialogue about the playoffs within the team.

“It’s something we haven’t talked about, more because we want to be the team we know we can be,” Goldberg said. “Starting Monday, our guys really have been very intense and they want to be the best team they can right now. For us, Friday is a playoff game.”