Marauders dominate Richland in opener
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During a first quarter timeout, top-seeded Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic boys basketball coach Ryan Lestochi reminded the Marauders of the importance of proper playoff intensity.
"Our intensity and focus wasn't where we expected it to be in the first half," he said. "At halftime, we let them know where we expect them to be. To the boys' credit, when they came out in the second half they were ready to rip."
That message was received loud and clear offensively before they found their way on the defensive end as they went on to pummel No. 8 Richland, 73-43, Friday night in the District 6 Class 3A quarterfinals at the Pleasant Valley Gymnasium.
The Marauders' reward is a home matchup against Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference foe Westmont Hilltop on Tuesday night in the semifinals.
After an initial bucket by Richland's Luke Raho, the Marauders immediately went on a 7-0 run as Trevor Rehm sparked it with a putback as he scored 15 points.
Buckets were traded back and forth from there on in the first as Raho scored on a 3-ball, which forced the early Marauder stoppage. Raho led the Rams with 19 points.
Later in the frame, it was Hamilton Gates getting a bonus free three throw before Braden Hirsch answered with a chance of his own to make it 17-15 Marauders after the first.
"It's hard to simulate in practice the way they play defense, and when they play defense that strong, it's hard to get into our offensive sets," Richland coach John Fuschino said. "Our kids did a great job, and we battled the entire game which I'm so proud of the boys for that. We did have them nervous in the first half so we're proud of that also."
Coming out of the locker room with a 33-27 lead, that's when BG started pulling away as Rehm scored eight points in the third. Taurean Consiglio continued the explosion as he drained a 3-pointer to make it 48-30 with less than four minutes to play.
Consiglio later scored on a feed from Rehm, which helped give the home team a 58-40 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
"Taurean, especially over the last couple of weeks, has been great," Lestochi said. "He competes on the defensive end -- he wanted to guard (Raho), he wanted that responsibility in the second half.
"Offensively we've been telling him all year just be aggressive. When he's aggressive, we are a much better team."
"A lot of my steals on defense led to better offense, and after I hit (the 3 to make it 48-30), they had to start guarding me a little bit," Consiglio said.
The Marauders outscored the Rams 40-16 in the second half, including by a margin of 15-3 in the fourth quarter. Jude Haigh finished the night with a game-high 23 points while Tyson Lestochi chipped in 10.
"We feel we got a lot of guys that can score, so that can keep teams off-balance," Lestochi said. "Richland did a great job in the first half. They played hard, they're big, they gave us different looks, and it just had us a little off guard to start."
Lestoschi hopes that his team has come to understand the difference in the style of play needed to succeed during the postseason.
"I hope we learned about what kind of preparation and intensity you need for playoff basketball," he said. "I hope that's the first thing we learned. I hope the next couple of days we're really focused and locked in. Westmont's a good team -- they're well coached, they got size and athletes. So they match up with us well."
RICHLAND (43): Thompson 4 1-1 9, Raho 7 0-0 19, Warner 0 0-0 0, Hirsch 1 0-0 2, Levander 4 2-4 10, Yarnick 0 0-0 0, Hale 1 0-0 3, Lushko 0 0-0 0, Mugerwa 0 0-0 0, Kehl 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 3-5 43.
BISHOP GUILFOYLE (73): Lestochi 4 2-4 10, Haigh 7 2-3 23, Rehm 6 3-4 15, Hates 2 0-1 4, Consiglio 6 3-4 16, C. Kissell 0 0-0 0, J. Kissell 1 0-0 2, Robertson 0 1-2 1, Ruggery 1 0-0 2, Foor 0 0-0 0. Totals: 27 11-18 73.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Richland 15 12 13 3 -- 43
Bishop Guilfoyle 17 16 25 15 -- 73
3-point field goals: Richland 6 (Raho 5, Hale), Bishop Guilfoyle 3 (Haigh 2, Consiglio)
Records: Richland (11-13), Bishop Guilfoyle (21-3).