Ruggery

With under a minute to play in the first quarter on Tuesday evening, Bishop Guilfoyle Academy’s Taurean Consiglio hopped off the Pleasant Valley Gymnasium floor on one leg. Consiglio had missed most of the football season with an injury, and some fans feared the worst again for the senior.

It turned out to be a minor injury as Consiglio was back on the floor at the 5:25 mark of the second quarter, but the Marauders trailed 27-11.

It probably isn’t much of a coincidence that BG began a comeback from there as they only trailed by four at the half. The Marauders played just well enough down the stretch to get a 66-57 victory over Westmont Hilltop in a very spirited, and sometimes heated game with two of the better teams in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference.

“(Taurean) has already been through so much to get to this point, and when you see that, it’s gut-wrenching,” Bishop Guilfoyle coach Ryan Lestochi said. “When he came back, it felt like it allowed everybody to say, ‘We’re good.'”

If you ask Troy Ruggery, who led the Marauders (15-3) with 19 points for the night, he wasn’t too worried about Consiglio.

“I knew he was going to come back. That’s just how T is,” Ruggery said. “He’s a hard worker and he always wants to compete. Seeing him go was a little bit of a setback, but when he came back we came back together and we played hard.”

For the Marauders to get back into the game before halftime, with or without Consiglio, was impressive in itself.

Westmont Hilltop’s Grant Craig seemed to drill everything for the Hilltoppers, going for 15 points in the first half.

Westmont (14-3) led 9-8 in the early part of the first quarter, but went on an 8-1 run before Consiglio was injured to make it 17-9 after the first period.

Westmont continued that run with a 10-2 run before Consiglio returned.

After the two teams traded baskets for a couple minutes, BG finished the first half on a 15-2 run. It was capped on a pair of baskets from Alex Krimmel to make it 34-30 Hilltoppers at the break.

“Nothing was going right at the beginning,” Lestochi said. “I think we got caught up in the environment, and we didn’t quite settle down and they were hitting shots.”

Westmont Hilltop coach Dave Roman felt his team was on the short end of no-calls on the offensive end.

“I think they got a little more physical on the ball on defense,” Roman said. “They were hand-checking. If they’re not going to call it, good for them. That worked for them.

“We just had too many turnovers at crucial times from some young guys that haven’t been in this position before. We’ll learn from it. It’s a tough environment to come into, but I’m proud of the way we battled.”

Bishop Guilfoyle opened the second half by scoring the first 11 points to go up 41-34, but Westmont once again battled back and held a one-point lead at 50-49 at the end of the third quarter.

Neither team scored until the 4:55 mark of the fourth quarter when BG’s Jake Kissell made a layup.

After a Craig 3-pointer, Ruggery drilled a trey of his own. On BG’s next possession, Westmont was called for goaltending on a foul on Kissell, and Kissell converted on the 3-point play to go up 57-53.

Guilfoyle led by 10 with just over a minute left to put the game away.

“The kids hate it, but I say, ‘Mental toughness’ and I say it nonstop. (This game) is why,” Lestochi said. “Things are going to go bad sometimes. When other teams are hitting and we can’t make anything, we have to stick together and fight and fight. Today we just fought and fought to the end.”

Craig led Westmont with 22 points.

After Ruggery’s 19 points, BG had three others score in double figures in Kissell (15), Grant Okonak (12), and Consiglio (11).

BG is at Bellefonte tonight. Westmont hosts Chestnut Ridge tonight.

WESTMONT HILLTOP (57): Gardner 1 0-0 3, Valente 3 0-0 8, Craig 8 2-4 22, Bowles 2 0-0 4, J. Wesner 4 2-2 12, Jashienski 3 0-0 6, L. Wesner 1 0-0 2. Totals — 22 4-6 57.

BISHOP GUILFOYLE (66): Krimmel 4 0-1 9, Kissell 4 7-9 15, G. Okonak 5 2-2 12, Ruggery 7 4-6 19, Consiglio 4 3-3 11, C. Okonak 0 0-0 0, Lightner 0 0-0 0, Shellenberger 0 0-0 0, Baker 0 0-0 0. Totals — 24 16-21 66.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Westmont Hilltop 17 17 16 7 — 57

Bishop Guilfoyle 9 21 19 17 — 66

3-point goals: Westmont Hilltop 9 (Gardner, Valente 2, Craig 4, J. Wesner 2); Bishop Guilfoyle 2 (Krimmel, Ruggery).

Records: Westmont HIlltop (14-3); Bishop Guilfoyle (15-3).

JV: No game.

Officials: Bill Pfeffer, Damon Rickens, Jared Burkett