STA Basketball Pulls Away from Friendship Collegiate in 2nd Half for 66-44 Win

Friendship Collegiate visited Martin Gym Tuesday night for a non-league matchup with the Bulldogs.  Spurred by an inspirational pre-game speech in the hallway outside their locker room, the Blue and Gold came out on fire grabbing an early 18-8 lead.  Collegiate led 23-14 at the end of the first quarter, but St. Albans regrouped at the break and chipped away at the lead with sharp half-court ball movement and renewed defensive energy.  Miles Hicks led the Bulldogs offensively with several hard drives to the rim and scored 13 of his 17 first-half points in the second quarter.  Jack Sabel added two consecutive three-pointers late in the quarter as the Bulldogs closed to within two points at 25-23.  Julian Matthews, Caden Diggs, and Elliot Eaton defended the low post and secured rebounds to prevent Collegiate from getting second-chance points.

 

With just over a minute left in the first half and Collegiate looking to build on their 4-point lead with a late possession, the STA defense knocked a pass down that Hicks grabbed and took all the way to the rim where he was fouled.  He hit both free throws to cut the Collegiate lead to two.  After the teams traded baskets the Bulldogs came up with another defensive stop in the final seconds of the half.  On the ensuing possession Hicks was fouled on a three-point attempt and went to the line to shoot three free throws.  He hit two of them to send the Bulldogs into intermission with a 31-30 lead.

 

With their re-discovered offensive rhythm and defensive effort the Bulldogs never looked back after the break, extending their lead to six at the end of the third, 44-38.  The STA momentum continued in the fourth quarter as their half-court defense caused several turnovers.  Offensively, the Bulldogs consistently found open shooters with crisp ball movement and smart cuts to the rim.  Leading by seven with just over a minute gone in the fourth, Diggs hit a layup, was fouled and converted the three-point play to give STA a 50-40 lead with 6:37 left.  From there the Bulldogs closed out the game with a 16-4 run to make the final 66-44.

 

Miles Hicks was STA’s leading scorer with 22 points.  Caden Diggs finished with 14 and Jack Sabel had 11 including three 3-pointers.  The Bulldogs improved to 3-1 on the season.  They have back-to-back home games this weekend facing neighborhood rival Georgetown Day School at 6:15pm Friday and Bard Early College at 1:45pm Saturday.