ST. MARYS 57, ECC 52

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Jan. 4, 2008

ST. MARYS – The last time St. Marys beat Elk County Catholic in boys’ basketball, Dutch sophomore Greg Simchick was in second grade.

Friday night, Simchick, who was making his varsity starting debut due to an injury to senior post man Brendan Mulcahy, hit four 3-pointers on his way to a team-high 16 points helping St. Marys end a 19-game losing streak to cross-town rival Elk County Catholic 57-52 at ECC.

“I told Greg last night he would get the start because he could provide a spark to the offense,” St. Marys head coach Brice Benson said.

St. Marys (5-8 overall, 1-2 D9 League), which lost to ECC 74-67 in triple overtime last week in the championship game of the Elk County Tournament at St. Marys, led by 17, 49-32, midway through the fourth quarter thanks to a 9-0 run to open the fourth quarter.

But ECC (9-2, 1-2), which last lost to St. Marys 62-59 Feb. 4, 2000, went on an 18-4 run to cut St. Marys’ lead to three points, 53-50, with 1:02 left to play. Matt Bauer hit two big 3-pointers to fuel the Crusader run.

Matt Guido, however, stopped the run by making four free throws in the final 44 seconds to seal the win.

St. Marys led 22-18 at halftime after coming out and slowing the tempo in the first half. The Dutch then built that lead to 40-32 at the end of the third quarter thanks to eight points from Levi Welder.

Guido had a double-double for the Dutch with 15 points and 10 assists, while Welder had eight points and 13 rebounds.

Bauer paced all scorers with 19 points for ECC with Logan Haberberger chipping in with 10.

St. Marys returns to action Tuesday when it hosts Brookville, while ECC is in action Saturday at Sheffield.

NOTES – While ECC had won 19 straight vs. St. Marys, the Dutch had some frustrating loses including seven by eight points or less including two by two points and two overtime loses including last week’s triple overtime thriller … Both teams players without senior starters … ECC’s Eric Mastrogiacomo missed his fourth straight game because of an ankle injury, and Mulcahy sat out with a head injury suffered in the loss to Bradford earlier this week … St. Marys played the entire game with four juniors and a sophomore on the court … ECC once again struggled from the charity stripe converting only 4 of 11.

ST. MARYS 57, ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 52

Score by Quarters

St. Marys 10 12 18 17 – 57

Elk CC 5 13 14 20 – 52

ST. MARYS – 57  

Guido 5-5-6-15 , Quiggle 4-0-0-9 , S. Mulcahy 4-0-0-9 , Welder 3-0-1-8 , Simchick 6-0-0-16 , Petrocchi 0-0-0-0  Totals 19-5-7-57

ECC – 52

Garner 1-0-0-3 , N. Wortman 1-1-3-3 , Higgins 3-2-4-9 , Haberberger 5-0-1-10 , Nissel 2-0-1-4 , Agosti 0-1-2-1 , Bauer 7-0-0-19 , Jones 1-0-0-0  Totals 20-4-11-52

Three Pointers – St. Marys 8 (Quiggle, Mulcahy, Welder 2, Simchick 4) , Elk County 8 (Garner, Higgins, Bauer 5, Jones)

Halftime score:  St. Marys 22  Elk County 18