COAL TOWNSHIP — Lourdes’ full-court, pressure defense helped the Red Raiders build a big early lead.
The defense, along with freshman Thomas Schultz, stepped up in the fourth quarter to help preserve the victory.
Schultz scored nine of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter as the Red Raiders earned a 61-52 win over Schuylkill Haven in a Schuylkill League Division II boys’ basketball contest Friday at the Lee E. Korbich Memorial Gymnasium.
Thanks to full-court pressure defense, the Red Raiders (3-0, 1-0 D-II) raced out to a 27-5 lead early in the second quarter. But the Hurricanes (3-2, 0-1 D-II) slowly got back in the game and pulled to within 46-45 early in the fourth.
That’s as close as Schuylkill Haven got as Lourdes held the Hurricanes without a field goal over the final 5:24 of the game.
The Red Raiders went on a 7-0 run to get the advantage back up to 53-45. Austin Charles hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the deficit to 53-51 with 5:24 to go. But Lourdes finished on an 8-1 run to finally put the game away.
“We want to play up and down,” Lourdes coach Pete Long said. “We want to pressure the ball and play 94 feet. But we had a starter out on academic probation tonight and that hurt our rotation a little bit. I think you saw the
fatigue there early in the second quarter.
“That’s a nice team and I knew they were going to make a run. We didn’t think they were going to cut it to 1, but Thomas stepped up.”
Schultz hit a 3 from the wing after Schuylkill Haven cut the deficit to 46-45 early in the fourth. He then had a steal on the Hurricanes’ next possession and converted that into a layup to make it 51-45.
“Those points were huge to give us a little cushion there,” Long said.
C.J. Reichard later hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to give Lourdes its 53-45 lead.
After Schuylkill Haven cut the deficit to 53-51, Schultz hit a foul shot to make it a three-point game. Jordan Fobia then scored on a give-and-go layup from Mike Padula, while and Schultz had another layup and then hit the front end of a 1-and-1 to push the Red Raiders’ lead back to 59-51 with 1:22 to go.
Lourdes’ defense forced five fourth-quarter turnovers and held the Hurricanes to 3-of-9 shooting in the period.
“I thought we protected the perimeter defensively after (Charles) hit those 3s,” Long said. “That’s a tribute to our kids, their half-court defense.”
Fobia finished with 15 points and five rebounds for the Red Raiders, while Reichard added 13 points and eight assists and Schultz collected seven rebounds.
Charles had 18 points and five rebounds for Schuylkill Haven, while J.T. Hughes added 16 points.
The Hurricanes came out sluggish Friday, turning the ball over eight times in the first quarter and 13 times in the first half.
Even when Schuylkill Haven got into a half-court offense, shots were rushed as the Hurricanes finished 2-for-11 from the floor over the first eight minutes.
Not only was Lourdes converting the turnovers into points, but the Red Raiders were also scoring off dribble penetration in their half-court sets.
“We just made a lot of mistakes,” Hurricanes coach Fran Murphy said. “A lot of ball-handling and passing mistakes. We have to get ready to play. It is hard to figure out sometimes what gets teams ready to play and tonight we didn’t come out ready to play.”
But Schuylkill Haven settled down and slowly crawled back in it.
Haven’s defense started to create some opportunities of its own — Lourdes had seven second-quarter turnovers — and got to within 36-25 at half.
The Hurricanes continued to battle back in the third and got the deficit to four points twice. The final time came on a Matt Mills putback with 43 seconds left in the quarter.
Charles then opened the fourth quarter with a 3 from the wing to make it 46-45. But Schuylkill Haven turned the ball over on consecutive possessions to help Lourdes push its lead back up to 53-45.
In its three wins this season, Schuylkill Haven has allowed an average of 41.7 points per game. It its two losses, its given up 58.5.
“We hit a couple of 3s that kind of picked us up,” Murphy said. “We just couldn’t get stops when we needed them. We have to improve defensively.”
Game Summary
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN (52) — Chalres 7 0-0 18, Cannavacciuolo 1 0-0 2, Conage 2 0-0 4, Klotz 0 0-0 0, Mills 4 1-2 9, Hughes 6 4-4 16, Boyer 1 0-0 3. Totals 21 5-6 52.
LOURDES (61) — Reichard 5 2-4 13, Schultz 10 4-6 25, Klembara 2 0-0 4, Fobia 7 0-2 15, Padula 1 0-0 2, Ahrensfield 1 0-0 2. Totals 26 6-12 61.
SH (3-2, 0-1) 5 20 17 10 — 52 Lou (3-0, 1-0) 19 17 10 15 — 61
3-point FGs: Charles 4, Boyer, Reichard, Schultz, Fobia
JV score: Lourdes 37-21