Charleston – Huntington St, Joe erased a 40-31 halftime deficit to defeat Cameron 71-62 Tuesday in the Class A quarterfinals of the Boys State High School Basketball Tournament.
The high octane Irish turned to defense in the second half surrendering just 22 points in the final 16 minutes.
“It was a gutty win for our guys. Our keys to victory were 32 minutes of defense and 32 minutes of rebounding,” St. Joe head coach Todd Maynard said. “Obviously we didn’t do that in the first half. We gave them too many second chance opportunities. Our guys did a good job locking in for the second half.”
St. Joe’s attacking style of offense also allowed it more opportunities at the free-throw line which was the ultimate difference in the game.
“Our style to their style was apples to oranges,” Maynard said. “They want to play a half-court ballgame and we wanted to speed them up which led to more tenacity. Our defense led to our offense.”
Zavion Johnson and Jesse Muncy led the Irish with 19, while Caden Ehrim added 17.
The loss by the Dragons offset a tournament record rebounding performance by Trevor Beresford. The previous single-game record was 19 and Beresford finished the night with 20 rebounds to go along with 17 points.
Lance Hartley also had a double-double for Cameron with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
St. Joe will play top-seeded James Monroe Thursday at 7:15 p.m. in the semifinal round.
