GMC Hoops Game Analysis–#2 St. Joseph’s vs. #1 Roselle Catholic–NJSIAA Tournament of Champions Final–Sun National Bank Center–March 19, 2013

Richardson and Roberson Lift RC Past St. Joe’s For Title, 65-49

TRENTON, NJ–One of the keys to Tuesday night’s Championship Game in the 2013 Tournament of Champions at Sun National Bank Center was which team’s big three was going to play well. For top seeded Roselle Catholic, the big three of Malachi Richardson, Tyler Roberson, and Hakim Saintil proved to be too much for second seeded St. Joseph’s.

Spurred by a game high 22 points including five three pointers by Richardson, and another 19 points by Syracuse bound Roberson, the Lions big three combined to outscore St. Joe’s big three by a margin of 49-37, and that helped Roselle Catholic emerge from this heavyweight fight with a 65-49 victory, and its first ever T of C title. St. Joseph’s was also making its first finals appearance.

Richardson had 13 points and three of his treys in the first half. Two of them came during a key 15-2 run that bridged the end of the first period with the end of the second as Roselle Catholic turned a 8-6 deficit into a 21-10 lead en route to a 26-16 edge at the intermission. After giving up the first two points of the second half, St. Joseph’s made its biggest run of the game by scoring 11 straight points including the last five by Marques Townes on two acrobatic layups including one that resulted in a three point play that closed the gap to 28-27.

Despite a number of subsequent opportunities over the next few minutes, the Falcons were unable to tie or take the lead. Meanwhile, Roselle Catholic began to pull away by the end of the third as Richardson struck again for two more threes that grew the Lions lead to seven at 42-35 heading into the fourth. St. Joe’s got no closer than six points the rest of the way as the Lions were able to spread the floor, get to the foul line, and make easy layups to pull away for the victory.

For the game, St. Joseph’s only shot 20 of 56 overall for 36 percent including just 3 of 19 from long distance. Roselle Catholic on the other hand, connected on 23 of 47 shots for 49 percent including 5 of 13 from beyond the arc. Both teams shot well at the line, but the Lions get there more often and went 14 of 16 for 87. 5 percent while Joes was only 6 of 7 for 85.7 percent. The Falcons actually enjoyed a 31-27 overall rebounding edge, and had fewer fouls most of the game before having to foul, and RC ended up getting the edge there, 12 to 14. Another key to the game was which team would dictate tempo, and Roselle Catholic was able to control things from that aspect.

The Lions didn’t allow the Falcons to get into transition very often, and made the GMC school work from sets in the half court. RC also took advantage of missed Falcon shots by getting out on the break as well for easy buckets. Roselle Catholic did a solid job containing Kentucky bound big man Karl Towns. The Lions got a solid and physical effort from big man Chris Silva before he left the game in the third, and Roberson helped clean up by swatting away a couple of Towns’ shots down low. The Falcons big man, who managed to stay out of foul trouble, was forced to take shot attempts away from the basket, and rushed into shots, and wasn’t able to get off a good shot, particularly from the perimeter. Towns didn’t get his first points until the 7:05 mark of the third quarter, and ended up with just seven for the game even though that still helped him get over 1,000 for his career.

Silva and Roberson had plenty of help too as Roselle Catholic’s defense played off other Falcon players to focus on Towns. James Ziemba had a few more open looks than usual, and took advantage in the first period with four points, but only had two more the rest of the way. Raven Owen had some good looks as well, especially from beyond the arc, but wasn’t able to get any of them to fall. Roselle Catholic had seven different players get into the scorebook with four of those players getting at least eight points. St. Joe’s had six players score with only two having eight points or more. Richardson and Roberson combined to shoot 13 of 24 from the field.

One bright spot for the Falcons was Townes, who ended up with a team high 17 points on 7 of 12 shooting from the floor including two threes. The junior guard scored 13 of those points including both threes in the second half. Wade Baldwin chipped in with 13 points. Hakim Saintil and freshman Asante Gist each added 8 in a winning cause for Roselle Catholic. With the victory, Roselle Catholic finished the season at 25-5 while St. Joseph’s, which had its 13 game winning streak snapped, closed out its season at 27-5.