St. Vincent boys can’t catch up after slow start vs. Urban

A big deficit created in the first quarter proved too much to overcome for St. Vincent as the Mustang boys fell to Urban of San Francisco, 34-29, Friday night at DeCarli Gym.

The Mustangs fell behind 13-0 and didn’t score a point until Liam Galten connected on a free throw opportunity with a minute to go in the opening stanza. A combination of cold shooting and full court pressure had the hosts on their heels from the opening tap.

St. Vincent regrouped well, and began to chop away at the Urban lead the rest of the way, but couldn’t quite get enough chips to fall in the late going. The Mustangs pulled within 19-14 at intermission and got as close as three points on two occasions, but the determined Blues grimly hung on for the victory.

A couple of shots near the free throw stripe by senior Scott Jepsen helped the Mustangs close the gap to 32-29 with seconds remaining, but a quick foul resulted in a couple of Urban free throws to seal the verdict.

St. Vincent coach Lance Phillips was able to guide his team through some early jitters against full court pressure, and the Mustangs responded well. Midcourt outlet passes to Nick Murphy and a couple of breakaways finally forced the Blues to disband the press, and the game settled into a battle of zone defenses.

Both teams were very deliberate against the zone, and attempted shots near the end of the 35-second clock. The result was a low-scoring, but close contest the rest of the way.

Jepsen entered the game in the first period, and provided some offensive spark for the Mustangs with a jumper on the inside in the final seconds. He continued his good work with five baskets in seven attempts to lead the St. Vincent offense. All of his baskets were well timed fall-away jumpers against close guarding by the Blues.

Murphy and Will Tarrant provided enough muscle to make things difficult for Urban down the stretch. Both went hard to the glass and defended well against energetic Andre Campbell of the Blues. Campbell finished with 10 points.

Urban point guard Rowan Williams led all scorers in the contest with 14 points. It was Williams who threw up a prayer that banked in from near the free throw line after St. Vincent defended well for most of the shot clock. The basket was a dagger to make the score 24-17 after the Mustangs held Urban scoreless from the floor for the entire third stanza.

The Blues (5-2) opened the game by connecting on five of their first eight shots from the floor, but things settled in when St. Vincent began to put a body on everyone underneath as the game played out.

Junior guard Reilly Tobin played a strong floor game around the top of the key area for St. Vincent.

After hosting Hoopa on Monday, the Mustangs (2-5) will play San Marin in a Saturday evening contest to close out the month of December.

The junior varsity game was a carbon copy of the varsity contest as St. Vincent closed a game-long deficit in the final seconds only to fall 38-34.