Five Takeaways: Goretti vs Mt. St. Joe
Last night, St. Maria Goretti traveled to Mt. St. Joe for a battle between two juggernauts in the BCL. Goretti came out with a huge win by the final score of 64-53 to improve their record to 15-3. With the…
Access all of Prep Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingLast night, St. Maria Goretti traveled to Mt. St. Joe for a battle between two juggernauts in the BCL. Goretti came out with a huge win by the final score of 64-53 to improve their record to 15-3. With the loss, Mt. St. Joe falls to 13-3 overall.
Here are five takeaways from the contest:
Abdou Tsimbila dominates
The Penn State commit put his hands all over this game from the opening tip. It started for him on the defensive side. Tsimbila had four of his seven blocked shots in the first quarter, which dictated the Mt. St. Joe offense from there on. Offensively, he overwhelmed his match up and used his brute strength to finish around and over the rim. The 6-foot-7 forward led his team with 20 points on the night.
Bishop tried to spark a second half comeback
Bishop led all scorers with 21 points that including three triples. Early on, he attacked the rim but Tsimbila blocked a couple of his shots, which then changed his mindset to seek contact on his way rather that avoid the Goretti bigs. There were plenty of occasions where Bishop got fouled, but there were no calls. Still, he did a nice job remaining positive with teammates and leading a run to cut the deficit in the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Blakney assists Tsimbila in the scoring department
Blakney has been the leading scorer in the handful of games that I’ve seen this season. Tonight, he caused plenty of issues for Mt. St. Joe with his ability to get to the rim. While he finished is some of those situations, he drew a ton of fouls and converted at the line. Eight of his 18 points on the night came from the charity stripe. In transition, he applied pressure to the defense by filling the wing lane and attacking off the catch.
Mt. St. Joe wasn’t themselves
Give credit to the Goretti defense for their active hands defensively both on shot attempts and passes, but the way Mt. St. Joe was trying to force plays seemed very uncharacteristic to me. Goretti showed a variety of defensive looks in the half court, but when they went zone, the Mt. St. Joe guards continuously tried to fit the ball in passing windows that simply weren’t there. This was especially evident in the first quarter, which put Mt. St. Joe behind the eight ball for the rest of the game.
Goretti did all of the little things to win
It’s one thing to come out strong in the first quarter, but to keep that energy throughout the game on the road against a really good team speaks to who this Goretti team is. Senior guard Przmek Golek took four charges. Between his weak side rotations and Tsimbila’s shot-blocking, the Mt. St. Joe players were hesitant to drive the ball from the perimeter. They also dove on the floor for loose balls and limited Mt. St. Joe to one-shot possessions throughout. These are all of the little things that are needed to win on the road in the BCL against top teams. They did it, and as a result, they go home as winners.