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By Matt Michelone
sports@altoonamirror.com
EBENSBURG -- Throughout the first quarter of Friday night's Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference matchup, the Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic and Bishop Carroll Catholic boys' basketball teams looked like they were about to put on quite a shooting display.
Both defenses took center stage in the second quarter before BG found its shooters touch again in the second half as they pulled away for a 72-41 rout over the Huskies.
"We want to be good on the backside, be aggressive on the ball," Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic coach Ryan Lestochi said. "We started off not in good defensive spots, not aggressive enough on the ball. After the first quarter we're like 'alright, boys, come on, let's get to our spots, we know where we're supposed to be,' and we got a little tighter defensively."
Bishop Guilfoyle went on an early 8-0 run. Jude Haigh put away a jumper as he went on to score a team-high 15 points.
Luke Repko answered later in the frame as he knocked down a 3-pointer to help pull the home team within six late in the first quarter, on his way to scoring a game-high 20 points.
BG led 23-15 after the opening stanza.
The Marauder defense held Jace Casses and Parker Alexander -- two players who have average in double figures this season -- to nine points each.
"Just their pressure defense (made life challenging for the Huskies)," Bishop Carroll coach Cosie Aliquo said. "We didn't get the points from the other guys to take the pressure off of Luke."
Haigh noted that the Marauder defense has been key in sparking their success on the offensive side of the ball.
"Defense always leads to great offense," he said. "As soon as we get a stop we like to push, get an open shot, knock it down, and cheer for our teammates. When everyone's rocking like that, it's a fun experience."
Early in the second quarter, Trevor Rehm helped set the tempo with a dunk on his way to contributing 12 points in period that the Marauders outscored the Huskies, 9-5, to take a 32-20 lead at the break.
"We feel like we got a lot of guys that can really guard on the ball, and we just try to make it a point of emphasis of where we're at on help side, and make it a well-rounded defensive effort."
"In the second quarter I thought we got a little stagnant offensively, looking for Danny (Jude Haigh), looking for Trevor instead of just making the right basketball play," Lestochi said. "In the second half we started making the right basketball play. The ball started moving, and you see multiple guys scoring. That's what we want our scorebook to look like."
Coming out of the break, though, the Marauders pulled away as they outscored the Huskies 18-9 as Nick Forr buried a shot from downtown which gave his squad a 50-29 lead after three.
Taurean Consiglio added to the Marauders scoring balance as he added 12 of his own to give BG three scorers in double figures.
Forr's 3-pointer in the fourth would help activate the running clock helping the Marauders stay undefeated in conference play.
"We feel like we got a lot of guys that can really guard on the ball, and we just try to make it a point of emphasis of where we're at on help side, and make it a well-rounded defensive effort, Lestochi said."
BISHOP GUILFOYLE (72): Lestochi 2 1-2 5, Haigh 6 0-0 15, Tr. Rehm 6 0-0 12, Gates 2 0-0 4, Consiglio 6 0-0 12, Foor 3 0-0 8, T. Ruggery 2 0-0 4, C. Kissell 1 0-0 2, Robertson 1 0-0 2, Ty. Rehm 0 0-0 0, Okonak 0 0-0 0, J. Kissell 1 0-0 2, K. Ruggery 2 0-0 6. Totals: 32 1-2 72.
BISHOP CARROLL (41): Casses 4 0-0 9, Tremmel 0 0-0 0, Repko 7 3-4 20, Oravec 1 0-0 2, Alexander 3 0-0 9, Sekerak 0 0-0 0, Becquet 0 1-4 1. Totals: 15 3-4 41.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Bishop Guilfoyle 23 9 18 22 - 72
Bishop Carroll 15 5 9 12 - 41
3-point field goals: Bishop Guilfoyle 7 (Haigh 3, Foor 2, Rehm 2), Bishop Carroll 2 (Casses, Repko)
Records: Bishop Guilfoyle (8-2, 8-0 LHAC), Bishop Carroll (6-4, 4-4 LHAC).
Officials: Jack McDougal, Randy Burkett, Clark Adelman
JV: Bishop Guilfoyle, 82-25. High scorers: Parker White, BG, 22; Joey Phillips, BC, 8.