Following a
Christmas week that saw them earn three impressive victories in route to a
Msgr. King Tournament title, Xaverian got back into league play with a 66-65
overtime win against Mount St. Michael’s. While the margin of victory may have
been much smaller than any of their King Tourney wins, this victory was likely
as impressive as any they’d had so far this season.
That’s because
the Clippers had some adversity to deal with. Shawn Fulcher, fresh of his tournament
MVP performance at St. Thomas Aquinas, struggled a bit for the first time this
year with foul trouble, picking up three early in the first half. The visitors from the Bronx went right at them
with scoring punch not so much from their stars, senior Mike Green and junior
Ibraham Wattara, but from players like junior Malik Pringle and freshman Noah
Best, who may be less heralded at the moment but are clearly fine players in
their own right.
The razor thin margin
between the two teams was reflected in the scoreboard from start to finish.
Xaverian lead 17-15 at the end of the 1st period. But saw Mount
rally as Green found his shooting legs and helped the Mounties take a 26-24
halftime advantage.
In the third period
Wattara became a factor with his ability to drive from the elbow and the key.
He attacked the basket very effectively using both a pull up jumper and a drive
to the rim to finish plays. He helped give the Mount a brief advantage but the
Clippers fought to a tie thanks to some clutch shooting by reserve Billy Reyes,
who finished with 13 points, and continued fine play from Michael Graham who
not only scored a game high 22 points for the Clippers but ended that third
period with a tough rebound and outlet pass to Isaiah Amazan which resulted in
a game tying layup.
The fourth quarter
became a mirror image of the third as it was Mount’s turn to battle back after
Xaverian took a small early advantage. Wattara and Green sparked a late rally
that saw Mount tie the game at 58 when Green connected on two free throws.
Xaverian’s defense was just a split-second late rotating on a baseline out of
bounds play and with 2.8 seconds left Green calmly drained both free throws.
In the overtime
period after Graham opened the scoring for the Clippers with an offensive
rebound and basket, it was up to Fulcher to close things out for the Clippers
with 6 of his 10 points. Mount clawed back to within a point but Green’s jumper
was well defended and the Clippers were able to hold serve at home against a
Mount team that is well-balanced, physical and confident. In a losing effort
they got 20 points from Green and 17 apiece from Wattara and Pringle. Even
though they suffered a tough road loss yesterday they demonstrated they will be
a tough out the rest of the regular season and in the playoffs in March.
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