By Stephen Zitolo
Holy Cross used a big third quarter to earn bragging rights in the first chapter of this year’s “Battle of the Boulevard.”
The Knights were able to down the host Terriers 66-55 in CHSAA Class AA boys’ basketball last Friday night. They got a strong all-around performance and received key contributions from not only their stars, but their role players as well. It gave first-year head coach and alum Terry Tarpey his first coaching victory in the Francis Louis Boulevard rivalry.
“These are games you never forget,” Tarpey said. “I still remember some of the games from when I played. We told the guys that there are going to be things that happen in this game that don’t happen in others. Mentally, we did a good job tonight.”
The game was decided in the third quarter. Holy Cross was able to put together two big scoring runs in the frame, one at the beginning and put St. Francis Prep in too big of a deficit to recover.
“We had a nice game tonight,” Tarpey said. “We had a lot of guys focused in tonight. We really took our time. Chaz Platt made a lot of big shots for us. Elijah Harris and Gerald Buncum grew up a lot tonight.”
The Knights (7-6) went on a 10-4 run to start the quarter to stretch their lead to 37-29. SFP was able to battle back into the game and cut the Holy Cross deficit to 38-36 midway through the third. But right after the Terriers were gaining some momentum, the Knights grabbed it right back. They went on a 10-0 run and seemingly took the wind out of the Terriers’ sails. Prep wasn’t able to scratch together another run for themselves and headed into the final quarter down 51-41.
“We came out with a lot of energy,” Knights senior guard Jermaine Bishop said. “Coach preached that to us at halftime and that’s exactly what we came out and did.”
Bishop led Holy Cross with 25 points and junior guard Jamel Horton chipped in 16. Senior guard Shane Herrity tallied 21 points to lead a veteran St. Francis Prep starting five.
The game’s first two quarters were a back and forth defensive battle between the two rivals, as no team seemed to want to grab the momentum.
In the first quarter, Holy Cross only led 13-10 and by halftime the game was even closer at 27-25. After the break, Holy Cross came out and took the game’s momentum into their hands as they had a strong showing to start the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, both teams traded baskets down the stretch. But the two Holy Cross runs in the third made the difference. The Terriers were disappointed with their performance.
“We had to play harder and play better defense,” St. Francis Prep coach Tim Leary said. “It’s a total mystery to me with the crowd that was here. We weren’t playing with young guys either. It’s very disappointing. We just got out-hustled and we are capable of more than that.”
