St. Monica boys’ basketball gets past New Harvest Christian
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PASADENA — At first glance, the St. Monica Academy boys’ basketball team might have taken its opponent for granted.
In an International League game Thursday afternoon, the Crusaders’ opponent, New Harvest Christian, had only five players.
After St. Monica jumped out to an early lead, the scrappy Warriors battled back to make it a seven-point game with under a minute left in the third quarter.
The Crusaders were able to withstand the comeback attempt and pulled away in the fourth quarter to earn a 50-38 victory at New Revelation Baptist Church.
“Other than winning, there wasn’t a lot to say that we did well today,” Crusaders coach Perter Grimm said. “That was probably the poorest that we’ve played all year.
“At our level of CIF basketball, I know that the kids play down a lot to their competition. That might have had something to do with how we played today. It’s a habit to learn to play your game no matter who you’re playing against.”
With four games remaining, St. Monica (15-3, 4-0 in league) is in first place in the second tier of the International League.
Against New Harvest Christian (5-6, 2-1), the Crusaders received 12 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks from Peter Ford, six points, five rebounds and five steals from Charlie Boles and seven points from Sam Gutierrez.
The lack of any bench players proved problematic for the Warriors. Early in the first quarter, Ryan Lee had the lens knocked out of his glasses and had to play the remainder of the game without them. Late in the first quarter, Joe Morales (17 points, 13 rebounds) fell to the floor hard and took some time getting up before staying in the game.
“One big problem for us with five guys is foul trouble,” New Harvest Christian coach George Gaxiola said. “Getting into foul trouble has been tough for us.”
Shooting, not fouls, was a problem for the Warriors in the first quarter, as they made just two of 20 shots from the field. That helped the Crusaders finish the opening quarter with a 12-6 lead.
St. Monica added to its lead in the second quarter, taking advantage of nine New Harvest Christian turnovers and a one-for-nine shooting effort from the Warriors. The Crusaders outscored their opponent, 12-3, in the second and led at the half, 24-9.
St. Monica went up by 17, 26-6, on a basket by Gutierrez with 7:22 left in the third. But the Warriors didn’t give in and cut the deficit to 31-24 on a free throw by Morales with 53 seconds remaining. St. Monica scored the final basket of the third to lead by nine, 33-24.
“We were playing lazy and we could have played a lot better,” Ford said. “We maybe thought we had it and we stopped going hard. …We just can’t do that.”
St. Monica pulled away in the fourth quarter, as the Warriors could only get as close as nine to the lead.
Twitter: @jefftsports
