SAN FRANCISCO - Each year, without fail, teams in the WCAL find league play to be filled with low-scoring, defensive battles. Such was the case in Wednesday’s matchup, as the Bellarmine Bells traveled up to San Francisco and took down the St. Ignatius Wildcats by a score of 41-27.
Nine first-half turnovers hindered the St. Ignatius scoring attack, as the Bells fiercely capitalized on a young Wildcats backcourt. Throughout the game, Wildcats playing in their first-ever varsity league contest created unforced errors at the hands of a mature Bellarmine defense, turning the ball over 17 times. Not only were offensive possessions not ending in shots for the Wildcats, but when the ball did go up, St. Ignatius shot just 31 percent from the field.
“We just got out of our rhythm,” said Wildcats head coach Rob Marcaletti. “We had an entire game plan and we just went away from it. Credit to Bellarmine, they played hard and came in here ready to go in a road game to open up league, but we just didn’t play our A-game tonight.”
Bellarmine, relying upon senior guards Masa Swain and Kyle Owens, only held a 19-12 advantage over St. Ignatius heading into the break, but finished the third quarter up 32-18.
Swain, who finished with nine points on 3-of-4 shooting, six rebounds, and two steals, was the Bells go-to ball handler throughout the game. He was all over the floor for all 32 minutes, snagging rebounds off the glass and winning key 50-50 balls, especially in the second half.
“I thought [Masa’s] idea of attacking the basket was huge for us,” Bellarmine head coach Patrick Schneider said. “It got him shots, it forced help, created some opportunities on drive and kick, he was just really determined to get great shots.”
Owens, the Bells’ other backcourt leader, finished with 11 points and five rebounds, connecting on all four of his fourth-quarter free throws to help clinch the victory and head into game two of league play with an unblemished record.
Another key factor which led to a strong Bells advantage down the stretch was their ability to force St. Ignatius into foul trouble. Bellarmine, in the bonus with 6:54 left in the contest, relied significantly upon the charity strip to seal up the victory and eliminate any hope of a St. Ignatius comeback.
That said, as Marcaletti indicated, defensive aggression wasn’t the most nagging issue of the night. When a team is only able to manage 27 points over four quarters, offensive execution is an obvious pitfall.
“I don’t think the issue was defensively tonight,” said Marcaletti. “I think defensively, these guys played their butts off and worked hard. Only giving up 41 points, that’s not what lost the game for us tonight. Offensively, we just weren’t clicking, we weren’t getting into our motions, and a lot of that was just because of the ball pressure. We weren’t able to make that first pass, which is so huge for us in our offense.”
A bright spot to look forward to for the Wildcats was the play of 6-8 junior forward Will Emery. In his first season on varsity, the starter played tenacious low-post basketball, snagging eight boards.
He found trouble with his offensive game, scoring four points on 2-of-6 shooting, but in a night where his team scored 27 points, it wasn’t an outlier for the ball not to drop in the peach basket.
“Emery is one of those guys that knows he needs to get stronger and bigger,” said Marcaletti. “I love him, I love coaching him. He’s a warrior, a competitor, always loves to win. He’ll give you everything he has. But again, you know, sometimes he’ll just get pushed off a block or spot a little bit. That said, he’s going to give you everything he has, all the time.
Both teams leave with much to work on, but of the mentality that just one game into league play, all eight teams in the WCAL will dramatically improve over the course of the season. For Schneider and his Bells, his ability to dig deep into the roster and play a significant number of bench players at an extremely early stage of the year was a tremendous asset Wednesday night.
“I thought the fact that we could play lots of guys who could contribute to what we were doing defensively, but also still be a threat on offense was key tonight,” said Schneider. “We got a lot of unexpected scoring from some guys, but it was key buckets throughout the game. We played great team defense. The fact that everyone played hard also helped out our offense.”
Bellarmine moves on to face Sacred Heart Cathedral (6-4, 0-1) Saturday night, while St. Ignatius prepares for a road trip down to Archbishop Mitty (7-3, 1-0).
