Prep Basketball BOYS : Crespi Sizzles and St. Francis Fizzles in 76-56 Del Rey Win

There is an axiom in basketball that if a team hits close to 50 percent of its shots, it’s had a successful shooting night. Friday night at Crespi High, the host Celts had a pretty successful night. They hit exactly half of their 62 attempts en route to an 76-56 win over St. Francis in a Del Rey contest.

Of the 31 shots Crespi made, only seven came from inside 15 feet. At times it seemed like everything the Celts threw up from outside the key went in. Just for good measure, they made 14 of 16 from the free throw line, including their first 11 in a row.

Crespi jumped out to a 13-1 lead in the game’s first 5:21 when the Golden Knights missed their first seven shots. St. Francis sophomore center Bryan Duffy finally grabbed an offensive rebound and put in a layup to end the skein.

That started a period in which the teams switched roles and it was the Celts that missed seven in a row while St. Francis chiseled the lead to 13-11. The Golden Knights played for the last shot of the period and had a chance to tie it with 20 seconds left, but were called for a three-second violation.

“It was a game of streaks,” Crespi Coach Paul Muff said. “We played pretty well, but I think anytime we looked up and saw that we had a big lead on the scoreboard we relaxed. They’re too good of a team to do that too.”

In the second quarter the teams again exchanged identities and Crespi, led by the outside shooting of Joe Campanella, Brian Capp and Jon Kirchner, built a 16-point lead late in the half. St. Francis played sloppy, turning the ball over on three consecutive turnovers in a two-minute span and Crespi went up 37-21 at the end of two quarters.

Campanella led the Celts with 22 points on 8 of 12 shooting from the floor and a perfect 6 for 6 from the free throw line. Capp converted on 10 of 15 from the floor and made his one free throw for 21 points and four steals. Point guard Alfie Basile 14 points, 12 assists (five of those on the first six baskets of the game and seven in the first half) and three steals.

Crespi went up by 26 points four minutes into the third quarter, but the Knights, led by center Matt Dyrek, who made all six of his shots in the period for 12 points, 26 in the contest, pulled to within 12 with 4:12 left in the game.

“In order to beat them, we knew that we had to try to contain Dyrek,” said Muff. “I felt we did a pretty good job of stopping him. But once we got that 26-point lead we started to relax again.”

Crespi managed to hold off the late rally and Chris Sullivan capped the game in typical Celts’ fashion by putting in a layup and converting a free throw for a three-point play with two seconds left.

Dyrek pulled down nine rebounds to go along with his game-high 26 points. Duffy had 13 points and led all players with 13 rebounds. Steve Tanin had eight rebounds to lead Crespi.

The Crespi victory put the Celts’ record at 7-5 and 2-0 in the Del Rey league. St. Francis dropped to 4-8, 0-1 in league play.