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Haigh reaches 1,000

By Jamie Eichenlaub 5 min read

Bishop Guilfoyle junior Jude Haigh came off a screen late in the second quarter, caught a pass near the top of the key then drained a 3-pointer.

Something he's done numerous times as a Marauder. This time, those three points had a little extra meaning.

Haigh's 3-pointer with two minutes left in the first half put him over the 1,000-point mark -- 1,001 to be exact -- for his career and highlighted BG's 65-25 runaway victory over Philipsburg-Osceola in a Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference matchup on Monday night in front of the home crowd at the Pleasant Valley Gym.

"The play was going to me, I came off the screen, saw they went under (the screen) and made the 3," said Haigh, who needed 11 points coming into the game to reach the milestone.

Jude Haigh's older brother, Patrick, who is the BG boys basketball team's all-time leading scorer with 1,744 career points, was in attendance. Patrick is a freshman on the Mt. St. Mary's men's basketball team.

"My brother is out at college and I miss him a lot, it means a lot that he was here today," Jude Haigh said. "All my teammates' support, them and my coaches congratulating me, meant a lot to me tonight."

Jude Haigh finished with a game-high 17 points and now has 1,006 points for his career.

"There's nobody that works harder than that kid," first-year BG head coach Ryan Lestochi said. "After this game he'll probably go watch film -- he's that kind of kid. He deserves everything he gets."

BG ran its record to 3-0 both overall and in the conference, while Philipsburg fell to 0-3 both overall and in conference.

Lestochi, who played for BG in the late 1990s, celebrated a milestone of his own, coaching his first game in front of the home fans.

"It was great to be back," Lestochi said. "I don't remember being nervous when I played but definitely had some butterflies tonight."

Lestochi's Marauders put his nerves at ease early in the home opener as his team rattled off 20 unanswered points to start the game and staked itself to a commanding 20-0 lead on a Jude Haigh steal and layup with 2:28 left in the first quarter.

"Take nothing away from them, they're a great team, a great program," Philipsburg-Osceola coach T.J. Anderson said. "It's a game of runs, and we just have to learn how to match the intensity when they go on runs like that. We're still building, we've got a bunch of young guys right now."

Philipsburg avoided a first-quarter shutout and got on the scoreboard with a Ryan McClure layup and free throw at the 1:21 mark of the first quarter, trailing 20-3. BG closed strong with a Nick Foor layup and Trevor Rehm 3-pointer for a 25-3 advantage.

BG continued to roll in the second quarter, going on an 11-4 run to take a 39-7 lead on Taurean Consiglio's layup with 3:40 left. Shortly after, Jude Haigh drilled a 3-pointer to put him over the 1,000-point mark for his career (44-9), and Hamilton Gates nailed a 3 to close out the first-half scoring, putting BG ahead, 47-14.

"Our goal was to start fast, go hard, and play together," Lestochi said. "I thought we accomplished those three from the start. We believe we're a very athletic team and want to go out and pressure, and I thought we did that tonight."

Philpsburg scored the first four points of the second half -- a pair of Nick Johnson free throws and a Cam Mason layup -- to cut the lead to 47-18 at 6:51 in the third quarter. BG responded with six straight points, kicked off by a Trevor Rehm two-handed slam dunk on a fast break and capped by a Consiglio layup for a 53-18 lead with 4:51 left. BG stretched the lead to 40 points a few times in the fourth quarter, playing the majority of the second half with a running clock.

"I really think we're just getting started, we've got a long way to go," Lestochi said. "We've seen flashes of the players playing like we as coaches want them to play, now it's just a matter of a flash being an entire game."

While Haigh was the only BG player in double figures scoring, Trevor Rehm and Consiglio each contributed nine points while Jake Kissell and Nick Foor had eight apiece. Hamilton Gates and Kurt Ruggery led the team with five rebounds each. BG travels to Clearfield on Thursday.

Nick Johnson led Philipsburg with seven points and four rebounds.

"We just have to keep growing, building and developing," Anderson said. "And use every game as a learning tool. Keep at it, that's all we can do.

Philipsburg hosts Bellwood-Antis on Thursday.

PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA (25): Peterson 1 2-4 4, Disimone 2 0-0 4, Johnson 2 3-3 7, Mason 3 0-0 6, Z. Meyers 0 0-0 0, McClure1 1-1 3, Matler 0 1-2 1, S. Meyers 0 0-0 0, Henninger 0 0-0 0, Klinger 0 0-0 0, Z. Meyers 0 0-0 0. Totals - 9 7-10 25.

BISHOP GUILFOYLE (65): Lestochi 1 0-0 2, Haigh 7 2-3 17, Tr. Rehm 4 0-0 9, Gates 1 0-0 3, Consiglio 4 0-0 9, J. Kissell 3 0-0 8, Foor 3 0-0 8, C. Kissell 1 0-0 2, T. Ruggery 1 0-0 3, Robertson 0 0-0 0, K. Ruggery 1 0-1 2, Ty. Rehm 1 0-0 2, G. Okonak 0 0-0 0. Totals - 27 2-4 65.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Philipsburg-Osceola 3 11 7 4 - 25

Bishop Guilfoyle 25 22 14 4 - 65

3-point goals: Bishop Guilfoyle 9 (J. Kissell 2, Foor 2, Haigh, Tr. Rehm, Gates, Consiglio, T. Ruggery).

Records: Philipsburg-Osceola (0-3, 0-3 LHAC); Bishop Guilfoyle (3-0, 3-0 LHAC).

JV: Bishop Guilfoyle, 51-23. High scorers--Trent Adams, BG, 13; Conner Matler, PO, 8.

Officials: Bill Pfeffer, Craig Andros, Joe Bilka.

Starting at /week.