by Stephen M. Lewis
DigitalSports Richmond
slewis@digitalsports.com
If Benedictine could bottle and sell what motivated them to dismantle Collegiate by 45 points Thursday evening, a lot of Cadets would be rich.
The Cadets, playing with loads of energy and passion, whipped the Cougars 77-32 in front of their home faithful.
The fuel? Rankings.
Benedictine, with seven losses, is slotted 10th in the latest Times-Dispatch Poll and eighth in the state private school poll.
The Cougars are marked seventh and fourth, respectively. It spelled trouble for Collegiate.
“When you don’t have to say anything as a coach, it’s helpful,” said Benedictine coach Sean McAloon, who posted the rankings earlier in the week. “That’s what we’ve been doing. Our schedule’s been tough.”
Not as tough as a full-court, man-to-man defense that began to stifle Collegiate once it took an early 7-3 lead. The Cadets won the first quarter finishing on a 14-6 run, only a snippet of what was to come.
The Cadets ruled the second period, registering a blistering 26-2 performance headlined by red-hot shooting from Darien Brothers.
The University of Richmond-bound guard had 15 of his game-high 29 points in the period, as Collegiate scored one field goal with 1:47 left in the quarter.
A dominating period to say the least.
“It started from the beginning of the game,” Brothers said. “We got after it on defense, got a couple of leak outs to start my groove. From then on I started hitting my shots.”
Everyone was hitting shots for the Cadets, as four Benedictine players scored as much or more as Collegiate’s high scorer, Jake McGee (seven points).
Brandan Connor, in his third game back from a broken arm, had 16 points. Terrific sophomore R.J. Price had 10 points and Kevin Gill put in seven.
The lead got as big as 48 points on a Connor trey with 2:54 left in the contest.
“We just wanted to come out and prove that the state polls don’t mean anything,” Connor said. “Go out there and show that we’re better than everyone thinks we are.”
Collegiate coach Alex Peavey knows how good Benedictine played.
“We’ve seen the type of quickness they have before,” Peavey said. “But what they did tonight is bring a level of energy we didn’t respond to.”
Let’s see how the polls respond next week.
Collegiate 13 2 8 9 – 32
Benedictine 17 26 20 14 – 77
Collegiate (10-5): Corrigan 6, C. Kelley 2, T. Kelley 4, Hungerford 0, Hawthorne 0, Wiltshire 2, Franz 2, Foley 2, Gottschalk 2, McGee 7, Stites 2, Foster 1, Agee 2. Totals: 13 5-6 32. 3-point goal: McGee.
Benedictine (11-7): Moody 3, Brothers 29, Gill 7, Connor 16, Lukish 4, Price 10, Thurston 6, Tiller 2, Pilot 0, Shaheen 0. Totals: 31 9-15 77. 3-point goals: Connor 2, Price 2, Brothers, Gill.
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