West Leads the Way on Offense While Defense Clamps Down on Blue Bears
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| Letrell West of St. Joseph’s scores on this putback in the first period of the Falcons battle against Barringer of Newark at the 2016 Linden Team Camp on Wednesday night. West finished with a game high 12 points as St. Joe’s overcame a slow start to post a 35-18 victory over the Blue Bears. |
LINDEN, NJ–Despite the changes in personnel over the years, St. Joseph’s has always maintained one very important constant under head coach, Dave Turco, and that is tough defense. On Wednesday night in the second of its two games at the 2016 Linden Team Camp, St. Joe’s was able to overcome a slow start by clamping down on Barringer of Newark to come away with a 35-18 victory.
Unable to score until the 3:21 mark of the first period, the Falcons trailed the Blue Bears by a 12-4 margin after one period. Barringer struck for three treys in the opening frame. St. Joseph’s wouldn’t connect on a trey for the entire game. However, the Falcons defense stepped it up, and clamped down on Barringer as it limited the Blue Bears to only six points on two field goals and two free throws over the final 30 minutes of action.
St. Joe’s outscored Barringer by a 9-0 margin in the second, a 10-4 margin in the third, and a 12-2 margin in the fourth for a 31-6 surge over the last three periods. The Blue Bears didn’t get on the board in the fourth period until the 1:53 mark when they made a pair of free throws. Meanwhile, Letrell West stepped up on offense by attacking the offensive glass for a couple of put backs, and scoring in transition. West ended up leading the Falcons with a team game high 12 points while big man, Alanzo Frink chipped in with 9.
Xavier Townes added 6 points on three field goals while Malachi Walker went a perfect 4 of 4 from the charity stripe for all four of his points on the night. Mike Granda and Sashank Sindhia rounded out the St. Joseph’s scoring with two points each on 2 of 2 from the foul line. The Falcons tallied their 35 points on 12 field goals and 11 of 15 from the foul line. Meanwhile, Barringer only got its 18 points on three treys, three field goals, and 3 of 4 from the free throw line. Barringer got off to a fast start by scoring the first five points in the initial 4:07 of the game on a floater in the paint and a three from the left wing.
The Blue Bears then added a free throw for a 6-0 advantage before the Falcons got on the board when West grabbed a couple offensive rebounds following a missed free throw and stuck it back in for a outback at the 3:21 mark. Barringer got another score on a three before Frink got on the board for the Falcons with a bucket at the 2:04 mark for an 9-4 Blue Bears lead. The Newark School and Super Essex Conference member finished the first quarter with a long three from the right side of the key that splashed in at the 0:51 mark of the first. Things wouldn’t be this good for Barringer from here on out though.
St. Joe’s started out quietly early on in the second as Frink stepped to the line and made one of two free throws at the 7:07 mark, and then Walker followed suit with a pair from the charity stripe with 4:35 to go in the half for a 12-7 Barringer lead. Then, following a Falcons timeout at the 3:19 mark, St. Joseph’s finished the half with the last six points on three field goals. West opened the half ending burst with another putback off a missed three pointer at the 2:20 mark. Frink then dribbled in from the left side for a layup with 1:29 remaining in the first half, and then Townes took a baseball pass from Frink and scored another layup as he was fouled for a 13-12 lead with 45 seconds to go before the intermission.
Barringer missed a couple three point attempts to end the half as Joes maintained its one point lead. At the intermission, Frink led the Falcons with 5 points. West chipped in with 4 while Townes and Walker each added two. After the Blue Bears opened up the third period with a score, West gave the Falcons the lead back at 15-14 on a layup with 7:42 remaining in the frame. Frink then added a basket of his own at the 6:25 mark for a 17-14 St. Joe’s edge. Barringer got its final points of the period to pull within one again, but Granda drew a foul and netted his only points of the game on two free throws to make the score 19-16 in favor of the Falcons at the 5:45 mark of the third. West then padded the lead with two charity shots at the 4:03 mark.
A little over a minute later, Townes got on the board again with another layup for a 23-16 lead at the 2:49 mark. St. Joseph’s would maintain that seven point edge heading into the final period of play. The Falcons then began the fourth by scoring the first eight points in a span of 4:05. Frink ignited the run with a putback at the 9:17 mark. Townes then followed up with a coast to coast layup at the 8:59 mark. West then added a bucket at the 6:55 mark, and capped the run when he skied for a layup from the left side for a 31-16 lead with 5:55 remaining. Neither team would score for over four minutes before Barringer got its final points of the game on two free throws with under two minutes to play.
The Falcons then closed out the scoring with a pair of free throws from Sindhia at the 1:06 mark and from Walker at the 30 second mark to wrap up the 35-18 victory. St. Joseph’s returned to action on Thursday against Howell at the Linden Recreation Center at 6:00 PM and against Bayonne in a crossover game at Linden High School at 8:00 PM.