St. Michael's Losses to Houston St. Thomas 52 - 37

The St. Michael's Crusaders came into Fridays game against Houston's St. Thomas Eagles feeling good and looking forward to a great game.  They left the Austin area on Thursday afternoon after a short practice wanting to be in the Houston area in the morning so they wouldn't have to make the long trip the day of the game.

The game started with not much offense from either team, I could say it was a defensive battle but realistically neither team was making shots.  Both teams had open looks but nothing was going in, maybe it was nerves anxiety or to much adrenaline either way they were both struggling and the teams went in at half time tied at 18.

The third quarter went much like the first two not much offense from either team.  Both teams were playing good defense and the Crusaders had several steals in the front court but shooters were just not hitting the mark.  Captain Jake Kocher attempted to take control on several occasions driving into the lane but each time he was met by 6'9" junior Jeremy King who had 4 blocks against Kocher and contested many more.

The Eagles refused to get out of the zone 2 - 3 defense that they were playing and when they tried to pressure the full court the Crusaders took advantage and scored.  On the few occasions that the Eagles did play a man to man it was obvious that they were at a disadvantage against the Crusaders guards who managed to get passed their defender with relative ease but just could not finish.

Going into the fourth quarter the Eagles were up 31 - 25 and this was still any bodies game.  But late in the fourth things just got uglier for the Crusaders some one must have turned on the A/C because the Crusader shooters went ice cold and not just from long range even a layup was not a sure thing for this team that has averaged about 60 ppg this season.  The Crusaders were 4 for 24 from 3 pt range and did fair much better inside the arc shooting 8 for 29. Shooting only 17% from three point range and 28% from inside the arc there was just no way that they were going to stay in the game long.

Looking at the final score you may be incline to say WOW! St. Michael's got dominated.  But that couldn't be farther from the truth.  Neither team played well and the Crusaders didn't do anything to lose this game.  They only had 7 turn overs, they didn't have a great rebounding game with only 21 for the game but were not dominated considering that the Eagles had a 6'9" and a 6'7" player on the court. The Eagles defense didn't keep the Crusaders from getting good open looks, shots just did not go in.

We would still like to congratulate the Crusaders on a great season and hope to see them in the playoffs again next year.

St. Thomas 52, St. Michael's 37

	1	2	3	4	OT	T
St. Thomas	11	7	13	21	—	52
St. Michael's	13	5	7	12	—	37

ST: Sanders 9, Taylor 1, Jones 6, Hurley 9, Brown 12, Brogna 7, Gheriot 1, Longino 1, King 6
SM: Bloonmquist 2, Maldonado 1 (0-5 0%) (, Kocher 16 (6-20 30%), Cady 2, Birch 5 (1-11 9%), Stanka 3, Whitlock 6 (2-8 25%), Wurzel 2
Records: SM: 23-17.