A long awaited game between the St. Vincent de Paul Mustangs and the Roseland University Prep Knights lived up to its billing on Friday night.
The Mustangs, whose only loss in league was to the Knights early this season, came out strong on both ends of the court and the Knights, who were undefeated in league, were no match for the determined SV team. St. Vincent won 60-46, dropping Roseland University Prep to 11-1 in league and giving St. Vincent a share of first place with the Knights, at least for the time being.
St. Vincent was anticipating a fast-paced offense from the Knights and obviously learned to counter the speed with its intense defensive efforts. On the other side of the court, the Mustangs’ post players and seniors Liam Galten and Will Tarrant were dominating around the basket.
The Knights had no answer for Tarrant who fought hard for offensive put-backs and managed 16 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks for the Mustangs. Galten picked up 15 points, three blocks and eight rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter. From the outside, junior guard Justin Fahy hit shot after shot resulting in a total of 15 points to give SV a comfortable lead in the fourth quarter.
"Our defense was even more suffocating this game than last,” Tarrant said. "Then we also moved the ball very well as a team and we were able to take easy shots”
The Knights had strong offensive efforts from Senior Pablo Avendano with 15 points and eight points apiece from Gilbert Jimenez and Lakota Sims.
Tied at 15-15 at half, the Mustangs seemed to have more fire in the second half.
“Everyone was very serious and focused on the task at hand,” Tarrant said. “We knew that we could win.”
Next SV will take on Technology High at SV and Roseland will play Upper Lake in RUP’s home gym. Though there are still a couple of games left in the season, the Mustangs and the Knights seem to be sitting pretty, comfortably sharing first place.
