Stepinac Drops to St. Peter’s in Overtime 74-73 in NY AA Sectional Quarterfinals

Come the postseason in sports you can take two approaches depending upon how your team’s regular season progressed. If your team had a strong and successful regular season a coach would want to stress to his or her players just keep on doing what they’ve been doing. If the regular season has been a struggle a coach can motivate his or her team by saying the postseason represents a fresh start; in other words a second season in which anything can take place.

For the Stepinac Crusaders they never wanted the regular season to end. They finished up the regular on Thursday night with a record of 18-6 and finished the season with a home record 9-3 in front of their passionate student section “The Jungle.”

In the first round of the C.H.S.A.A. Playoffs – New York Sectional Quarterfinals where the Crusaders were seeded #2 versus their opponent on Sunday #7 St. Peter’s of Staten Island. The two teams met in early December and the Crusaders were victorious 63-54.

It was a completely different story on Sunday from their first meeting. St. Peter’s played like they were a force to be reckoned with, clinging to a 29-28 at halftime. Point guard Naim Thomas led the Crusaders with 10 points during the first half of play. Josh James added six and Demarcus Miller contributed four points in the first half.

St. Peter’s in the third quarter were able to extend their advantage over the Crusaders to nine points at one point. James started the Crusaders comeback by scoring hoops on several drives to the baskets and hit a couple free throws and pretty soon it was a five-point game.

Despite the Crusaders cutting St. Peter’s lead they were never able to fully gain control of this game. One of the problems was that St. Peter’s was shooting the ball at a very high percentage and it caused a lot of problems for the Crusaders defense. Another problem that arose during the fourth quarter was the Crusaders had trouble at the free throw line.

The Crusaders were able to get into the bonus with 6:16 left in this game. During the final six minutes of the game they were 6-12. This statistic turned out to be crucial in the closing minutes of the game.

Things got very scary for the Crusaders late in the third quarter when James went down with a leg cramp and had to leave the game for several minutes.

When James Decker knocked down a 3-pointer right in front of his team’s own bench with 2:20 left in the game, the Crusaders were tied at 57-57. After the end of regulation the game was knotted at 61 points apiece.

As the overtime period begin it looked like the Crusaders were going to run away from St. Peter’s. The Crusader’s Walter King was just electrifying whenever he touched the basketball. He has a very quick and strong first step that can leave opposing defenders stuck in their shoes. He scored the Crusaders’ first six points of the overtime period.

With 2:41 left, the Crusaders had a two-point lead and Decker just made a tremendous defensive play to get the ball back for his team and it looked like the Crusaders were going to kill some clock and have a quality offensive possession when suddenly a nightmare took place as they turned the ball over on a simple pass.

James came back from his leg cramping injury to make a significant contribution. On two consecutive offensive possessions he made sweet looking drives to the basket from the top of the key which both led to successful hoops. The second move he jumped in the air, double-pumped the ball and poured the ball in the basket to give his team a 71-70 lead.

After a quick basket by St. Peter’s junior guard Latrell Curtis the Crusaders were able to answer with a score by Thomas on a nice drive and the Crusaders had a one-point lead 73-72 with 7.8 seconds remaining.

What followed next would be the play of the game. St. Peter’s had the ball under the basket and the Crusader’s defense was drifting to the right to cover the guards but then the inbounder player from St. Peter’s threw a pass to his teammate Ryan Kennedy who caught the ball over his shoulder and converted it for a layup and a 74-73 lead.

The Crusaders had one more chance to win. James Decker was the Crusaders’s inbound passer. Decker has a very strong arm and he is a pitcher on the baseball team during the spring season. He threw a strike of a pass to James with less than three seconds left. James went right through to the basket but his layup was blocked by a St. Peter’s defender as time expired.

James and Thomas finished the game with 19 points each. James and Decker also tied for the team lead with eight rebounds apiece. Decker is a player that sometimes doesn’t get enough credit for his impact on the Crusaders. He plays the game of basketball like Pete Rose played major league baseball in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Decker is all effort and will do anything to help his team win. If diving on the floor for the ball were a recognized statistic he would be among the leaders.

Despite the loss the Crusaders season isn’t over. They are guaranteed one more game this season in a little less than two weeks when they participate in the intersectional playoffs.