Fast First Quarter Start Fuels Falcons to Season Sweep of Chiefs
| St. Joseph’s Breein Tyree fires in a three pointer in the third quarter against Piscataway. |
METUCHEN, NJ–Breein Tyree and Branislav Vujadinovic have been leading the way offensive for St. Joseph’s this season. Â However, in Wednesday night’s GMC Red Division clash versus Piscataway, St. Joseph’s got a big boost from senior forward Marcus Ashamole, who collected a double-double of 15 points and 15 rebounds to spark the second ranked Falcons to a 64-36 victory over the Chiefs. Â Ashamole scored 11 of his points in the first half as St. Joe’s jumped out to a 31-13 halftime lead while Tyree and Vujadinovic also scored 15 points for the game to propel the Falcons.
St. Joseph’s jumped out to a 14-3 first quarter lead thanks to five points from Vujadinovic and four from Ashamole while Piscataway was limited to just one field goal. Â The Falcons then outscored the Chiefs by a 17-10 margin in the second as Ashamole scored 7 points while Vujadinovic chipped in with another five as the frontcourt tandem combined for 21 of Joes’ 31 first half points. Â In the second half, Tyree took over. Â The junior guard, who also tallied 8 assists, 6 rebounds, and 5 steals, scored 10 of his points in the second half including two third quarter threes as the Falcons led by as many as 29 points in the fourth before winning, by 28.
Leading by 18 at the intermission, St. Joseph’s outscored P-Way by a margin of 23-17 in the third. Â Over the first 4:05 of the period, the Falcons put together a 12-8 run that included a layup and a foul line jumper by Mikey Granda, a three pointer from the left side of the key by Vujadinovic, and a trey by Tyree for a 43-21 lead with a little less than four minutes remaining in the period. Â The Falcons finished the third by scoring 11 of the last 20 points including a bucket by Ashamole, and another three by Tyree just before the buzzer for a 54-30 advantage heading into the fourth. Â In the final period, St. Joseph’s spreaded things out, and took time off the clock while still managing to outscore Piscataway by a margin of 10-6.
After both teams exchanged scores to open the final stanza, St. Joe’s scored the next five points including a baseline jumper from the left side by junior Bryce Layne for a 61-32 lead with about three minutes to play. Â The Falcons then wrapped up the win with a driving layup by Xavier Townes. Â Donzell Cunningham led Piscataway with 11 points including 6 in the second period while D’Ondre Dent chipped in with 10 points including the only field goal for the Chiefs in the opening period. Â With the victory, St. Joseph’s, which was playing its first game since losing at the buzzer to Hun last Thursday, improved to 10-2 including an 8-0 mark in the GMC Red while Piscataway, which had two games snowed out in the last week, dropped to 3-10 overall including a 1-7 mark in divisional play.