St. Joe’s tops Maple Grove
State champions, Secky wore down
After Monday night’s game, many people were saying that Maple Grove doesn’t have its “basketball legs” yet. Well St. Joe’s does, and it had plenty of them.
Junior guard Kyle Wojciecowski scored 24 points while senior forward Evan King had a great performance on both ends as St. Joe’s played nearly its entire bench — in the first half — to wear down Maple Grove and standout junior Chris Secky in a 79-64 win.
King scored 16 points and guarded returning All-Western New York second-teamer Secky in the Marauders’ diamond- and-one defense in the second half as St. Joe’s extended an eight-point halftime lead to double digits (63-51 after three) and kept it there before an estimated 250 at St. Joe’s.
Secky, a 6-foot-2 junior who quarterbacked the Red Dragons’ football team to a Class D state championship, had 18 points, but only two in the second half on limited shooting.
“My teammates helped me out with a lot of help defense — I didn’t have to do it alone, and that’s what made it easier,” said the 6-3 King, who is the lone starting senior for St. Joe’s, which had four starters graduate from last year’s Manhattan Cup title team. “He’s a great player. I’ve never been that tired guarding anybody before.
“We feel we had to come out and prove something and we came out and did it. The team effort was great.”
Matt Dyrek also had 16 points, including three three-pointers, while junior center Sean Mulhern had nine points, 15 rebounds and three blocks for St. Joe’s (2-2). The Marauders led after the first (18-14) and second quarters (41-33) and closed the third with a 13-5 run in which King had eight points.
Junior guard Dan Rivas had two three-pointers among his 13 points while 6-4 junior Kevin McElrath scored 10 for Maple Grove (3-2), which won the Class C state title last year but is in Class D this season.
“I think we made a few too many turnovers, and our defense wasn’t that good. We just got worn out in the second half,” said Secky. “I probably didn’t move enough to get open and get other guys free.”
St. Joe’s has already committed to travel to Bemus Point next year to play the Red Dragons, who only start one senior.
“Basketball, [whether it’s Class] A, B, C, D . . . they can play,” St. Joe’s coach Mark Simon said of Maple Grove, which he had never seen play before. “I was scared, quite honestly, about [Secky’s] capabilities. I heard great things about him, and he’s a great player. . . . [King] had his mind made up, he wasn’t going to let him score, as best he could.”
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