History doesn't repeat
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| St. Bede's Damin Smith ffnds Princeton's Jacob Fisher in his path to the basket in a first-half drive in Tuesday's regional quarterfinal at R.M. Germano Gymnasium. (BCR photo/Mike Vaughn) |
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GRANVILLE — Mike Kilmartin taught history for years at Mendota High School and if there's one thing he knows about it is that history repeats itself. He just didn't want to remind his St. Bede Bruins.
Facing a strikingly similar scenario to the 2011 regionals, the Bruins wrote a new chapter in Academy posting hoops history, defeating Princeton 71-60. It was just a year ago Princeton defeated the Bruins in the regular season finale on the heels of a lopsided defeat earlier in the season and followed up with a regional upset.
"Deja Vu and history repeats itself. It was a replay of last year and luckily it changed," Kilmartin said. "I'm a history teacher and didn't want to tell the kids history repeats itself."
"There wasn't really a doubt, we just wanted to come out and show we could win, I guess," said junior Damin Smith, who paced the Bruins with 15 points.
The No. 2 seeded Bruins (22-7) will advance into Thursday's semifinals at 7:30 p.m. against No. 6 El-Paso Gridley (17-9), a 62-51 winner over host Putnam County in Tuesday's nightcap. Top-seeded Fieldcrest punched its ticket for Friday's finals by defeating Eureka 53-45 Wednesday.
Princeton (14-14) was primed to repeat history, overcoming a 7-0 deficit to start the game and 5-point deficit in the second quarter to take a brief lead early in the third quarter.
Senior forward Jacob Fisher hit a buzzer-beater three steps past the three-point stripe to pull the Tigers within two at halftime at 32-30. PHS senior Kyle Arnett scored two straight hoops to start the third quarter for PHS, the second on a nifty give- and-go from teammate Lance Jensen to give the Tigers a 34-33 lead.
"I was proud of the guys for the way we responded from (the 7-0 deficit). I thought, 'Oh oh," because they're making shots, we turn it over. Then we got right back into it and really battled until the third quarter," PHS coach Jesse Brandt said.
After a Joe Pyszka hook shot for the Bruins, Fisher followed with a drive on the left baseline to regain a Tiger 36-35 lead with 5:40 remaining in the third quarter.
The Bruins would have no part of history repeating from there on out. They went on 10-0 run, capped by a three-pointer and layup by Brad Groleau and a hoop by Damin Smith to go up 45-36.
The Tigers broke their ice with a three-pointer by Jensen with 2:08 remaining and Cole Evenson scored on a reverse layup just before the horn to make it 47-41 at quarter's end.
Jensen hit another three-pointer to keep the Tigers within striking distance at 50-46 with 6:32 left to play. Sam Lucas answered Jensen's trey with one of his own and Smith posted up for a deuce inside to stretch the Tigers lead back to 55-46. From there, the Bruins put the game away from the free-throw line, hitting 11 of 12 tosses from the charity stripe in the final four minutes.
"I said coming into the game I thought free throws would be the difference and they made theirs tonight and we didn't," Brandt said. "When you get down and they don't miss a free throw, especially in the fourth, you can't get back in it very easy.
Brandt pulled seniors Jensen and Fisher out with 13 seconds to give them a final bow from the PHS faithful. Fisher exited with another solid game with seven rebounds and a game-high 28 points.
"He's played last three or four weeks, just outstanding, and it was no different tonight. He was hard for everybody to guard, he was just active on both ends, but we just didn't quite get enough help."
Jensen tallied 11 points and junior guard Zach Stroud chipped in eight and Arnett seven.
Smith helped the Bruins put the game away, scoring eight of his team-high 15 points in the fourth quarter,
"He's hard to guard, because he can face up, he can drive and he can post up. He's a junior and got a great career ahead of him," Kilmartin said.
Pyszka (14 points, 8 rebounds) provided the Bruins with inside muscle and Brad Groleau (13 points) an outside weapon.
Kilmartin said it was crucial the Bruins established themselves early with their 7-0 lead to alleviate any doubts his kids may have following Friday's 66-58 loss at Princeton, a game the Tigers dominated early on.
"We jumped on them at St. Bede. They jumped on our butts at their place. That was the difference in the game," he said. "It showed, 'Yes we can play play with you, yes we can beat you.'" he said.
"We just wanted to prove a point, we didn't want to lose this game. We just came out strong," Smith said. "After that, we just cruised on from there. We didn't want a repeat of last year."
EPG 62, Putnam County 51: Jake Sale scored a game-high 34 points, including a three-point buzzer beater to tie the game at 29. From there, the Titans broke the game open, outscoring the Panthers 15-8 in the third quarter and 18-14 in the fourth to advance. EPG made 10 of 15 free throws in the fourth quarter and 16 of 25 overall.
EPG had a pair of double-digit scorers in Brian Ehresman (17) and Bodee Schlipf (15).
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