With Help From Youngsters Bernardi and Burns lead Xaverian to Senior Night Win

Senior Brian Bernardi poured in 25 points and his classmate Dillon Burns added 18 as Xaverian bounced back from Tuesday's tough loss at Cardinal Hayes to earn an 88-77 win over a stubborn Loughlin squad at home last night.
As has been the program's custom, the last league home game was chosen to honor the basketball team's 6 man class of 2012. Starters Bernardi. Burns and Andrew Petric as well as  reserves Stanley Peacock, Shakel Kemp and Sean Dillon were each read tributes and presented with portrait style photographs. Peacock who has contributed energy, toughness and intangibles was rewarded with a senior night start.
The entire team fed off the energy of the ceremony.  Strong shooting from Burns and Bernardi combined with tough play under the basket provided by Peacock and some good moments off the bench by Kemp helped propel the Clippers to a fast start.  And to their credit, the younger Clippers were fully engaged in the effort to make their teammates' night special. Junior Lamel Faison continued his slow and steady return to form from injury, pushing tempo and finding his teammates for baskets, while sophomore Ryan Rossiter made his presence felt around the hoop when both Kemp and Peacock both picked up early fouls.
Of all the contributions from underclassmen perhaps none was more important than that of talented sophomore guard Raven Owen, who along with Faison  provided a penetrating compliment to Burns' and Bernardi's hot shooting.  Save for a bad moment on defense where being a bit too aggressive saddled him with his 5th and final foul, he made terrific decisions setting up teammates or scoring himself on penetration, it was easily his best game as a varsity player. and hopefully for the Clippers a sign of things to come.
To their credit Loughlin did lots of good things in front of a boisterous home crowd for Xaverian.  Even as the Clippers opened substantial margins the Lions used their defensive toughness and outstanding three point shooting to seemingly never go away.  Their outstanding sophomore trio of Mike Williams Khadeem Carrington and Elisha Boone brought the Lions back from as much as 14 points down to within 4 late in the third period. But Burns, as he's done all season buried a huge three to help his team regain its footing for the final winning push on what was a great night especially for the seniors but also for the Clippers' and the Lions' futures which both look very bright.