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When you put St. Pius and St. Thomas in the same gym, you can expect nothing less than an all-out heated rivalry in which you would not be disappointed. That is unless you were on the St. Thomas side Tuesday night to witness St. Pius make a late push en route to a 61-52 victory.
With the game within two-to-three points through three quarters, strong defense and team management by St Pius guard Howard Risher proved to be the difference maker.
“I think Howard (Risher) is a real key component to what we do,” St Pius coach Laurence Woods said. “We try to be balanced and what we say is on any given night somebody is going to step up and do some different things. We have a lot of great individual players, but tonight was his night.”
Risher finished the night with 18 points, 14 of which came in the first half alone. Speaking on the first half, it was the Eagles who had the upper hand through most of it. Even though it stayed close, St. Thomas kept the slight advantage.
St. Thomas guard Cody Hill had the hot hand for with 14 first-half points, which helped the Eagles to a 29-27 lead at halftime.
In the second half, there was plenty of trading baskets. But it seemed like the Panthers came out with a little more fire and began attacking the basket much more than they did in the first two quarters.
“What we try to do is continue to get better, progressing,” Woods said. “We haven’t played our best basketball yet and that’s a good thing.”
Another good thing that happened for the St Pius was jumping out to an early lead that forced the Eagles to use the trap defense. The Panthers scored nine of their 19 fourth-quarter points in transition with Dwight Miller sending it home with several slam dunks.
Besides Risher’s 20 points, the Panthers other scoring leaders were Aaron Davis (19) and Miller (12). For St. Thomas, Hill ended with 22 points and Jonathan Strom had 11 points.
“Our coaching staff really put together a good game plan and the kids have been working hard in practice and followed it,” Woods said. “We did not do it to perfection, but did just enough to win.”
These two will face off again next Saturday.
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I beleive there is some incorrect info on your website about the St Pius and St Thomas game. Howard Risher had 20 pts and Aaron(Mike) Davis was second in leading the scores with 19 and Dwight Miller had 12. The Chronicle and Rcs Sports both reported the same as i have mentioned above. It's Important to get the information correct. Thanks for all you do.