St. Joe’s experience pays off in crunch time

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centercourt42

January 14, 2011

There's something to be said for playing against stiff competition and feeling like you've been in a situation before. For the Marauders, taking some early season lumps and also picking up some quality wins before league play begins, may have been the difference last night.

St. Joe's overcame a late deficit to force overtime and then thrived in the extra session to win the first marquee matchup of the season between the large schools in the Monsignor Martin Athletic Association. The Marauders defeated the previously unbeaten Tigers, 68-62, zapping the energy from what had been a raucous crowd at Mel Palano Gym.

With 1:10 remaining in regulation, Kyle Kobis finished a tough drive with a basket to put Bishop Timon-St. Jude up by five points, 58-53. St. Joe's came right back down and got 3-pointer from Jake Spitler off a dish from Chad Kelly to pull within two points. The two teams then traded turnovers, before St. Joe's sent the Tigers to the charity stripe where they would miss both attempts.

Following a timeout, the Marauders inbounded and looked inside for Reggie Agbeko. The Marauder big-man just missed on a shot, but was fouled and connected on his second shot to make it a one-point game. After Kobis connected on only one of his attempts from the line at the other end, the Marauders had the ball and one last chance.

After an inbound pass with 6.6 seconds left, Connor Rehbaum passed to Steve Moser, who dribbled into the lane and missed a shot against a double-team. The rebound came back to Moser, who then had a second attempt blocked right into the hands of Agbeko, who scored as time expired to send the game to overtime.

The extra session began with St. Joe's matching a bad shots from Timon with turnovers. But as the Tigers continued to put up hurried attempts, Agbeko continued to grab the misses, and the Marauders began to pull away. Kelly scored four points in OT and Rehbaum scored three points and also had a two timely steals to seal the game.

Rehbaum finished with 20 points, Spitler scored 15, while Agbeko and Kelly added 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Kobis led Timon with 20 points, Ryan Dougherty scored 15 points, and Jordan Williams finished with 13.

-centercourt

One response to “St. Joe’s experience pays off in crunch time”

Patrick Moran

January 14, 2011

I think it was an important game for both teams.
St. Joes- You were right last night. They needed this win more. Had they lost it woulda been the fifth of the season and that might’ve creeped into their heads. It was a huge confidence builder for them to win in a tough environment last night and the late game heroics by Agbeko might end up comforting and igniting him to the point he takes that next step in becoming a dominant player.
Timon- I’m sure there spirits are crushed today, but in the long run this may be a good experience for them. They now have the feel of what a tight game is where every possession is critical. They proved that despite a perceived lack of size in the middle that they can play with one of the best teams in WNY.
Also, they can hold their hat on knowing that they could’ve have possibly gotten a worst shooting performance from Jordan Williams and Kyle Kobis and still found themselves in overtime. If anyone wasn’t sure before, they know now that Timon isn’t a one or two man team.
Having said that, if Timon wants to be one of the top teams in WNY, Kobis and Williams both have to shoot a lot better– that’s what they do.

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