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Coming into tonight's Pennsylvania
Athletic Conference match up in
Gwynedd Valley, all indicators
suggested that the host Griffins, at
7-1 in the league, should have
easily handled an Eastern team that
they beat by sixteen earlier in the
year and that had lost it's last two
games. The Eagles executed down the
stretch to erase a nine point first
half lead on the way to a 65-59 win.
David Volpe led all scorers with
twenty in the win.
The
real story of the game was not in
the scoring, but in the defense. In
the first PAC game of the year,
Gwynedd-Mercy guard Rashid Santiago
tore up the Eagles for twenty points
and was able to get the Griffins
into whatever sets they wanted to
run. Since that game, the Griffins
also added high scoring forward
David Smith to their line up. At
6'7, Smith looked to be a huge match
up problem for the Eagles as well.
The Eastern coaching staff had to
figure out a way to slow these two
down without giving hot shooting
Chris DelBrocco any open looks from
three.
The
coaching staff chose to cross match
players to create vastly different
looks for the Griffins while keeping
David Volpe, who held DelBrocco to
four in the first contest on
DelBrocco. Matt Malloy, at 6'4, drew
the assignment of containing the 5'8
Santiago. With Malloy's constant
presence, the shifty left-handed
guard scored just a single free
throw and did not attempt a shot.
More importantly for the Eagles,
Santiago did not pick up a single
assist for the hosts.
With
Malloy out of the mix inside, the
coaching staff put the assignment of
checking Smith on the shoulders of
Ty Coleman. In making just his
second career start, the 6'2 guard
worked to front the bigger Smith and
managed to score nine points of his
own. Always there to help on the
weak side, Mike Johnson picked up
six blocks in the game and corralled
nine tough boards.
The
first half opened with the host
griffins hitting tough shots and
moving out to an early lead.
DelBrocco and Corey Rich each hit
tough jumpers early to give the
hosts leads at 9-7 and 11-9, but the
Eagles worked the ball inside for
answering lay-ups and even took a
brief lead at 13-11 before Matt
Johnson hit a three for Gwynedd to
put the hosts into the lead.
The
Griffins then slowly built
their advantage to 29-20 on a three
pointer from Jack Forth, who hit
eight of his ten points in a six
minute stretch as the hosts built
their advantage. Almost instantly,
the Eagles responded with a 24
footer from straight on by Volpe to
cut the lead back to six. Mike
Johnson came from the blind side to
steal the ball from Smith and found
Volpe for a lay-up and in just over
thirty seconds, the Eagles were back
in the game.
The
Eagles scored the last five points
of the half to go into the locker
room down 33-32. The coaching staff
felt that the game was moving in the
Eagles direction and that they
needed to continue to find good
shots while eliminating turnovers.
The Eagles were careless with the
ball in stretches of the first half
and finished the half with fourteen
giveaways. Volpe had twelve points
to lead all scorers at the break,
and perhaps more importantly, none
of the Eastern principals were in
foul trouble.
The
second half opened with three
straight Griffin baskets an Eastern
30 second timeout. Out of that
timeout, the Eagles would outscore
their hosts 33-20 the rest of the
way. After the two teams turned the
ball over, DiMaria found Coleman
underneath and, after a solid pump
fake, the muscular guard powered
home a lay up while getting fouled.
he converted the three point play to
make the score 39-35 Gwynedd. The
teams each scored on their next
three possessions with the Griffins
hitting a pair of inside baskets and
a DelBrocco three, and the Eagles
twice posting Malloy and finding
Coleman for a short jumper.
After
DiMaria cut the deficit to 46-44
with his second three of the day,
the Eagles rebounded a DelBrocco
miss and had the chance to tie. Mike
Johnson secured an offensive rebound
on an air ball, but had the ball
popped out of his hands with 7
seconds on the shot clock at the
three point arc extended on the left
side. The Eagles executed a back
door lob for Volpe to tie the game
at 46.
A
jumper from Malloy and a three from
Volpe answered baskets from Smith
and Forth, and Santiago then tied
the game at 51 when he split a pair
of free throws with 9:24 remaining
in the contest. Neither team would
score a field goal until Volpe
converted a lay in with just under
two minutes to play, but the Eagles
converted eight straight foul shots
to forge a 59-51 advantage.
David
Volpe led the Eagles with 20 points
and six assists. Malloy had thirteen
points. The junior forwards duties
on the perimeter pulled him away
from the basket, but he still
managed to collect six rebounds.
DiMaria had 14 points, and Johnson
hit two of three from the field and
a pair of free throws for six
points, but collected nine boards
and six blocked shots in an
outstanding defensive effort. Haven
Wroton and David Smith each finished
with 14 in the loss, and DelBrocco
scored 13 and collected six assists.
Gwynedd-Mercy falls to 7-2 in the
league, while the Eagles improve to
6-5. Eastern returns to action
Thursday night with a 7:00 home game
against College Misericordia.
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