Fourth-quarter dooms St. Monica Academy boys’ basketball
PASADENA — A late surge from the visiting Le Lycee boys’ basketball team ended a back-and-forth contest with St. Monica Academy as the Crusaders fell, 63-56, in International League play Wednesday at New Revelations Church gym.
The Lions broke a tie at 49 with a game-clinching 14-7 run fueled by St. Monica turnovers and fouling along with clutch inside play.
“The difference down the stretch for us was simply turnovers,” St. Monica Coach Peter Grimm said. “We didn’t handle the ball the way we needed and they did. You always know you’re going to have a tough game with Le Lycee and we didn’t play well enough to win.”
Sophomore forward Peter Ford led St. Monica (7-13, 3-3 in league) with 19 points, nine rebounds and three steals, while Crusaders junior guard Jerome Grimm added 17 points and four rebounds.
Ford had an offensive putback with 2:29 left in the contest that knotted the score at 49.
The duo of Ford and Jerome Grimm were almost matched statistically by Lions wing player Joseph Abergel.
The forward was brilliant and gritty in scoring a game-high 33 points and immediately broke the deadlock at 49 with a pair of free throws.
Le Lycee added a free throw before a runner from St. Monica’s Liam Norton brought his team within 52-51 with 1:41 left.
Le Lycee responded with the inside presence of Abergel, who converted back-to-back close-range buckets to give the visitors a 56-51 lead with 57 seconds left.
The scoring coincided with two consecutive turnovers for the Crusaders, who then missed on two shots inside the paint and were forced to foul Abergel again.
The forward calmly sank two free throws to ice the contest with 42 seconds left as Le Lycee went up, 58-51, and never allowed St. Monica to get any closer than five points. Overall, St. Monica committed four turnovers in the fourth, three during the final 90 seconds.
“We saw a mismatch inside and we exploited it,” Le Lycee Coach Brian Edwards said in reference to Abergel. “We had some guys hitting outside shots and that spread their defense and opened up some chances inside.”
Edwards was referring to three fourth-quarter three-pointers from Ali Hecmi that helped sustain the Lions’ offense through struggles.
Other than the last two minutes of the contest, Wednesday’s game was tight throughout with neither team taking a larger lead than a five-point advantage.
Ford hit a three-pointer with 10 seconds left in the first quarter to give St. Monica a 16-11 lead after one.
That five-point margin remained at 21-16 before the Lions closed the first half with an 8-4 spurt to trail, 25-24, at the break.
Both teams traded the lead in the third quarter until a single free throw from St. Monica’s Eamon Mireles with 21 seconds left tied the contest at 38 after three.
“The toughest part about today was losing,” Jerome Grimm said. “I don’t like Le Lycee and I hate losing to them more.”