The St. Thomas men’s basketball team defeated the Mount Allison Mounties on Sunday afternoon by a score 79-64. The Tommies now hold a regular season record of seven wins and four losses.
Sunday’s game got off to a slow start for both teams. Neither scored their first basket until two minutes into the first quarter. The Tommies offense picked up late in the quarter, thanks to a balanced scoring attack from Brent Kingston, Corey DeLong, and Jason Daniels.
“We were shooting the ball too quickly,’’ said St. Thomas head coach Dwight Dickinson. “We didn’t let our offense run enough. But once we settled down, we started scoring.”
MTA came out strong in the second quarter, keeping the Tommies lead in single digits. The Tommies shifted the momentum to their side halfway through the second quarter following Matt McGrath’s three point play.
The Tommies kept MTA’s stronger players under control. Second-year Mountie Ben Chisholm was in foul trouble and Stephen Bohan struggled with his shot.
The Tommies took a 36-26 lead at half time, and extended their lead in the third quarter. While the team struggled with their jump shots, their offense included a lot of ball movement which allowed for many second chance opportunities from offensive rebounds. Late in the quarter, Corey DeLong hit a three pointer to extend the lead to 20.
Despite the large Tommies lead, the Mounties didn’t give in. They put on a full court press, which allowed them to diminish their deficit on the scoreboard.
“We wanted to get all our guys in, and this game gave us that opportunity,” said Dickinson. “We need them to handle pressure better and to be stronger at protecting the ball.”
The Mounties were able to cut the lead down to 11, with the run being lead by guard Jacob Planinc. However, the Tommies handled the press well and didn’t allow the lead to drop below 10 points .
“When we’re handling a press, we want to get the ball to the middle and work from there,” said Dickinson. “We started to get the ball in the middle so the press was much easier to break.”
The top scorer for the Mounties was Bohan with 14. For the Tommies, first-year player Nathan Mazurkiewicz lead the way with 14 and McGrath chipped in with 13.
