By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
DUNMORE – Holy Cross is showing what its coach wants to see: in-season improvement.
The latest evidence came Thursday night when the Crusaders ran their winning streak to six games by handing visiting Mid Valley its first Lackawanna League Division 3 boys loss, 52-45.
Holy Cross played lock-down defense early, rebounded throughout, hit free throws late and used a balanced offense to stay in front the entire game.
“As a coach, that’s what you look for, you want your team to get better as you go along and I think we are,” Crusaders coach Al Callejas said after his team won its sixth straight since a 4-5 start. “Winning breeds confidence. There’s no doubt about it.
“It was just a matter of time for this group. It ended early for us last season and we were shut down in the summer. The more repetitions you get together and the more you play together, hopefully the players get it, and I think we are.”
Logan Tierney led the way with 14 points and a strong defensive effort that included getting all 8 of his rebounds on that end of the floor. He was 6-for-7 from the floor to lead the team’s 50-percent shooting effort and went 2-for-2 from the line.
Gabe Gonzales, who grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, and Kaeden Carr added 13 points each. Will Kittrell had 12 points, 5 assists and 3 steals.
Mid Valley’s Danny Nemitz scored 16 fourth-quarter points to finish with a game-high 20.
Holy Cross took two different approaches to holding Mid Valley’s top two scorers on the season, Gabe Tanner and Ricky Vinansky, to 10 points each.
Hayden Hosie, who was scoreless while taking just one shot and dishing out five assists on the other end, did much of the work that led to Tanner going 4-for-17 from the floor.
“The way he guarded Gabe for three quarters was probably one of the biggest factors in the game,” Callejas said. “We need someone to get the ball up; he’ll get the ball up. He makes great decisions.
“His value is that he’s a great all-around player.”
Vinansky made all five of his shots, but Tierney made sure those were the only shots he got, fronting him in a physical post battle and keeping him from getting any offensive rebounds.
“I thought Logan did a nice job in the post,” Callejas said. “Vinansky’s a nice player and limiting them to one shot was big. Logan cleared a lot of boards for us and I thought our guards did a nice job of giving them a hard time getting the ball to (Vinansky).”
Holy Cross limited Mid Valley’s second shots. It barely allowed first shots in the first quarter.
The Crusaders took a 13-2 lead by forcing eight turnovers while the Spartans were only attempting four shots.
“It was important for us to get out to a lead in the first quarter,” Callejas said. “They’re a tough team to play from behind on because they have so much offensive horsepower.
“We just started clicking early and that certainly set the pace.”
Mid Valley committed just four turnovers after the first quarter and Tanner made other contributions by leading the team in rebounds (seven), assists (three) and blocked shots (two). But even with Nemitz putting together a huge fourth quarter, the Spartans never caught up.
Tierney had five points when Holy Cross scored the last seven of the first quarter for the 11-point lead.
The closest the Spartans came after that was five points – once in the second quarter and three times on Nemitz scores in the fourth quarter.
The Crusaders made six straight free throws from 3:13 remaining down to 1:04 to fight off the comeback.
Mid Valley scored 27 points in nearly 29 minutes before Nemitz became nearly unstoppable late, scoring 16 of the team’s 18 points in the last 3:01. He hit two 3-pointers and had a three-point play during the late flurry.
Holy Cross matched wins with Dunmore to remain in a second-place tie while tightening the division race. The Crusaders are 5-2 in the division and 10-5 overall.
Mid Valley, which had its 10-game winning streak ended, is 6-1 and 13-3.
