by LYNDHURST, Ohio- St. Edward–despite trailing for most of the game–came from behind and stole a seven-point victory on the road Tuesday night against the Brush Arcs.
Eagle head coach Eric Flannery admitted his team didn’t play their best basketball, but when his guys needed to show up late in the fourth quarter, they showed out.
“I think we outplayed Brush tonight for two minutes,” Flannery said after playing catch-up for most of the night. “They continued to attack and that’s the time when you as a coach kind of check out what your team is all about. We threw some crazy combinations out there to see what would work.”
A crazy combination they executed late in the fourth quarter was a 3-pointer from junior Angelo Kulacz. His deep shot broke a 46-46 tie with two minutes left in the game, starting an absurd scoring run in the ensuing ten seconds.
“I just thought we worked together,” Kulacz said. “My guys got me open, I was able to hit those threes and that was about it.”
What was once a tie game turned into an Eagle seven-point lead in the blink of an eye. After Kulacz’s three-pointer, Lucas Perusek was able to come away with a steal and layup that pushed their lead to five points before another layup made it a seven-point swing to open up the game with under two minutes left in the fourth quarter.
The Eagles would out-score the Arcs 18-5 in the final quarter to steal a much-needed road victory for Flannery’s team.
“We didn’t shoot the ball very well…It was good just for us to respond and get a win,” Flannery said. “They just have some length that we haven’t seen yet this year and it’s great to experience that…It’s great to win and learn.”
For the Eagles, Perusek paced the offense with 14 points. Danny Lavelle, Cameron Grant and Ryan Sullivan rounded out the scoring with seven, seven and six points to lead the way to a win.
“We just got after it from the start on the defensive end,” Perusek said. “That’s what our team is about, we gain energy through our defense which leads to our offense and that’s the way we won tonight.”
Brush head coach Chet Mason wanted his team to play with some tempo throughout the night, but turnovers and a lack of second-chance points really hurt the Arcs down the run.
“That’s St. Eds, an elite powerhouse program,” Mason said. “Nineteen turnovers and 18 offensive rebounds, you can’t beat St. Eds or none of those caliber teams like that. We’re going to go back to the drawing board but with a young team, there’s going to be some ups and downs.”
For the majority of the game, Mason’s inexperienced team was able to hold its own against the Eagles, really making them test their outside shots while working through their offense at times as well. But as the fourth quarter went on, there wasn’t an answer for how quickly the Eagles were able to flip the switch, something Mason sees as a learning experience early on in the season.
“That’s just the lack of experience in that type of moment,” Mason said about the way St. Edward was able to push their lead late in the fourth quarter. “It’s early, it’s only our third game of the year so we’re going to keep working.”
For the Arcs, Pittsburgh commit Marlon Barnes and senior standout Tyler Williams paced the offense with 13 points each during the loss. The experience these two players bring to a young Arc bunch is something Mason points out through just three games thus far.
There are going to be a lot of lessons learned this year and with a gauntlet schedule, Mason understands where he wants his team to be come march.
“With losses comes lessons and you can’t substitute experience. Experience is the best teacher” he said. “It’s all going to take time and I call it a puzzle, I can see this thing coming together piece by piece.”
