Ben Scaffidi coached at St. Joe's for seven seasons as both JV head coach and varsity assistant, before leaving to take his first varsity head coaching position at Starpoint.  On Wednesday night, Scaffidi returned to St. Joe's with his Spartans for the first time, after enjoying much success during his time with the Marauders, but it was former coaching mentor who left with the victory.

 

St. Joe's got 14 points each from Nick Motley, Naseer Jackson, and Anthony Brophy, and never allowed Starpoint to take the lead over the final three quarters, en route to a 65-60 win over the visiting Spartans.  With the victory, the Marauders improve top 4-4 overall, and 3-1 against teams from WNY.

 

Grant Beyer connected on a 3-pointer midway through the opening quarter to put St. Joe's in front, and his team never let go of the lead the rest of the way.  Beyer added a second splash as part of his seven points in the beginning stanza, to help the Marauders get out to a 15-9 advantage after one.  St. Joe's momentum was just getting started as the first quarter ended, as they used a 22-5 run to take a commanding 31-14 lead late in the half, getting scoring from six different players along the way, led by the play of Jackson.

 

However in the third quarter, Starpoint settled in and began to push back.  After making up some ground and getting to within 11 points late in the frame, Christian Nodine converted a three-point play the traditional way to cut the Marauder lead to single digits.  After the teams traded a pair of free throws, Ben Walters connected from downtown for the Spartans, before Nodine added another bucket on off a feed from Walters, and suddenly the St. Joe's lead was just 40-37 heading to the fourth quarter.

 

"Credit to them, we had them pretty good early and they fought back," St. Joe's coach Mark Simon said.

 

However three points would be the closest the Spartans would get, as St. Joe's turned to Motley in the final stanza, who responded with big plays on tough drives to the basket.  Motley netted six of his 11 fourth quarter points during a 10-0 Marauder run that built their lead back to 13 points and allowed them to close out the game.

 

"We were flipping who had the ball," said Simon.  "We were looking to Nas (Jackson) early in the game and then opened the floor and Nick was able to make plays for us down the stretch.  They're two special guards."

 

Starpoint refused to go away and never surrendered until the final horn had sounded.  The Spartans are a fundamentally sound team, but also highly competitive and scrappy – the mark of an excellent young coach.

 

"I have the highest respect for Coach Scaffidi," said Simon of his former program assistant.

 

Scaffidi acknowledged his team dug too big of a hole in the first half, but was pleased with grit shown by his group until the game was over.

 

"We did a good job battling back into it," Scaffidi said.  "These guys are going to keep fighting until the final whistle."

 

Point Totals

St. Joe's:  Naseer Jackson 14, Nick Motley 14, Anthony Brophy 14, Grant Beyer 9, Caleb Cockrell 5, Jack Capen 4, Michael Motley 4, Michael Telesco 1

Starpoint:  Christian Nodine 23, Brock Kroening 15, Ben Walters 11, Garrett Longwell 6, Derek Clemons 3, Adam Lasal 2

 

-centercourt