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LYNDHURST, Ohio–St. Vincent-St. Mary never trailed Monday night. Senior guard and Illinois commit Sencire Harris helped with that as he was a force all night, finishing with a team-high 23 points to help lift the Irish past the Arcs, 71-63.
The game was tight all throughout the first half. The Irish nearly went up double-digits but as soon as they would get a stop and score, there were the Arcs inching their way closer. A pair of free throws from senior guard and Ohio University commit Elmore James got the Arcs within one—25-24–with just under three minutes left in the first half.
As the Irish did for most of the game, they came up with key stops and really forced the Arcs to test their outside shots, which weren’t falling early on. With that, St. Vincent-St. Mary took a 30-26 lead at the break, but head coach Dru Joyce believed it could’ve been more.
“I thought we got the ball where we wanted but just made some bad passes. I thought we made at least four passes that had we had thrown the right pass the right way then we had some easy layups,” Joyce said. “Those are costly errors and you can’t make those kinds of errors at the beginning of the game.”
We talked about that at halftime and my issue at halftime was that now it’s about heart. They made this a game, we could’ve been up 14-15 points, we’re only up four,” Joyce said about the halftime message to his team. “Now it’s about heart, I need your heart right now and I need you to come out and play with some heart.”
The Irish never looked back. Lance Hayes, Sencire Harris and Darius Starford along with Ramar Pryor played pivotal parts throughout the game to keep the Irish in front by a comfortable margin.
Elmore James was the centerpiece for the Arcs in a comeback effort, he scored 11 of the team’s 13 points in the third quarter, but the Arcs trailed by 13 points heading into the fourth quarter.
End of 3rd: SVSM leads Brush 52-39 following a put back at the buzzer—it’s the largest lead of the game for the Irish. @SportsKee1 pic.twitter.com/ksT2lofQmv
— Michael Trivisonno (@MichaelTriv_) February 8, 2022
“They did some really good stuff to mess up our offense,” Chet Mason said about St. Vincent-St. Mary and their ability to make it difficult for the Arcs to score and try to come back. “We had 17 turnovers. Against St. Vincent-St. Mary, you cant do that. That’s the best team in the state. You cant get turnovers because when they get out in transition, they punish you.”
The Arcs would make an attempt to cut at the lead. They got it down to eight points with just under three minutes left in the fourth quarter. But that’s about all the Arcs had in the tank.
They couldn’t get over the hump and complete the comeback. Turnovers being the main reason for that along with not connecting on its 3-point attempts.
For the game, Elmore James finished with a game-high 31 points during the loss. Elias Johnson and Antwone Woolfolk rounded out the scoring with 10 and 9 points, respectively.
For the Irish, Harris led the way with 23 points. Lance Hayes finished with 18 points along with 10 points from Ramar Pryor.
For Joyce and his team, he’ll be a familiar face within the area as their next two games this week–Wednesday against Lutheran East and Friday against St.Edward–both require them to travel back north. It’s a win that they’ll enjoy for a little bit but he knows his guys have to stay focused starting tomorrow.
“We got through the first one and now we’ll prepare for Wednesday,” Joyce said, “That’s what’s most important and on our minds right now, getting ready for Wednesday and if we do that the right way, we’ll be pretty pleased with ourselves.”
