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CLEVELAND, Ohio–When the game is on the line, Michael Bova is the guy St. Edward head coach Eric Flannery wants to give the ball to, he explained Wednesday night.
He came up clutch for the Eagles, delivering the team’s final five points, including the go-ahead bucket to put his team up, 55-54 in the closing second, ultimately sealing the win for the Eagles.
FINAL: St. Eds 55, St. Ignatius 54 @SportsKee1 @michael_bova_1 wins the game for the Eagles. pic.twitter.com/kGQotpXTWJ
— Michael Trivisonno (@MichaelTriv_) January 20, 2022
“The ball is going to be in Mike’s hand when it matters”’ Flannery said. “It’s his opportunity, it’s his job to win it or lose it for us.”
St. Ignatius took a 54-45 lead with just over three minutes left in the game. From there, the Eagles went on a game-ending 10-0 run, shutting out the Wildcats and forcing a myriad of turnovers to get revenge on a team that defeated them by the same score one year ago.
“I don’t think we played very well today but that’s ok, you’re not going to play great every game. We had smoother guys step up, like sophomore Wendell Henry in the first half,” Flannery said. “Looking at their faces at times I was wondering if they gave up or if we were going to fight through this and they showed me that they got the fight still.”
“We’ve kind of been in this position before,” Bova said. “We don’t want to be but we didn’t quit at the end, especially when we were getting rattled in the fourth quarter…we just never quit.”
Bova had seven of the team’s 15 points in the fourth quarter. He ended the night with a team-high 14 points. Jair Knight and Zyion Freer-Brown each had 11 points and sophomore Wendell Henry rounded out the scoring with nine during the win.
St. Edward struggled early on shooting the ball. After trailing for the majority of the first quarter, they started to make a little run. With St. Ignatius up 11-7 with three minutes left in the opening quarter, the Eagles defense put together an impressive effort. A quarter-ending 10-2 run had the Eagles ahead 17-13 after the first quarter.
From there, the Wildcats kept getting within striking distance but weren’t able to regain a lead for the remainder of the half. The Eagles took a 30-27 lead heading into halftime with Zyion Freer-Brown leading the way with eight points and a pair of 3-pointers to kickstart a sluggish start. Jon Effertz had 11 first-half points to keep the Wildcats within reach.
From there, it was all Wildcats, limiting Bova to just one point in the third quarter with their lead reaching close to double figures. Effertz had eight points in the third quarter to do all he can, but his team couldn’t finish the game off strong.
The last made basket for the Wildcats came with just less than four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter when they led 54-43 following a putback from sophomore guard Ace Buckner.
Jonathan Effertz ended up leading the Wildcats in scoring with 19 points, including four 3-pointers. Senior center C.J. Yarian added 12 points and nine rebounds during the loss.
For the Eagles, it came down to not panicking and staying poised under pressure. With both student sections being out in full force, it took a lot not to play too emotionally with the crowd. Being in a familiar situation really helped some of the Eagle players handle the late-game moments well.
“Just staying locked in and not looking at the scoreboard,” Zyion Freer-Brown said about how his team was able to stay posed nude pressure. “We’ve been in this situation multiple times this season…it’s really just staying composed and buying in.”
“posed nude pressure”
Try this instead:
“poised under pressure”
Michael Bova is a star and he is a great young man. Just top shelf all the way