Blue Jays Fall to the Crusaders, 65-53

Drew Black soars over his defender, makes the basket, and draws the foul to bring the score to 44-34 with 2:30 left in the third quarter.

After the first round thriller against Brother Martin in the Birdcage on Jan. 20, a big stage was set for the second round rematch between the district rivals in the Conlin Gymnasium on Brother Martin’s campus.

Although there were promising sequences of scoring by the Jays at different intervals of the contest, Brother Martin controlled the game and maintained a comfortable lead for most of the game. The stage seemed too big for the Blue Jays, and Brother Martin emerged victorious with 65 points to Jesuit’s 53.

In the first three minutes, the Jays were stride for stride with Brother Martin. Jesuit actually took an early lead, 7-5, on balanced scoring from seniors Hunt Conroy (5), Will Hillery (24), and Collin Kulivan (20). For the rest of the first quarter, though, Jesuit’s offense was slowed to a trickle, and Brother Martin capitalized on offensive rebounds to score repeated second chance points. At the end of the first quarter, the Crusaders had mounted a 17-8 lead.

In the first minutes of the second quarter, the Jays had narrowed the Crusader lead to just four points. Senior Chis Beebe (12) stepped up big, scoring seven points in just two minutes. Junior Drew Black (34) also provided a valuable defensive presence and scored four points of his own. Brother Martin continued, though, to score at will and capitalize on the missed defensive assignments by Jesuit. The Crusaders controlled the offensive boards and extended their lead to fourteen points going into halftime 38-24.

Drew Black continued his offensive attack in the third quarter, scoring another six points in two minutes of play. The Jays again cut Brother Martin’s lead to eight points with two minutes left to play in the third quarter, but the progress was all dashed in a Crusader 90-second charge that extended their lead back to 15 points.

Going into the fourth quarter behind 51-39, there was very little the Jays could do to get back into the game without radically shutting down the Crusader offense. Although Will Hillery led an effort by driving into lane for a pair of buckets, Brother Martin maintained their lead and ended the game 12 points ahead, 65-53.

Drew Black’s bursts of offensive earned him the top Jesuit scorer’s spot with 13 points. Will Hillery’s beginning of quarter flurries in the second half gave him 10 points. Michael Hull and Chris Beebe each had seven.

On Friday night, the team returns to Carrollton and Banks for their last district home game against St. Augustine. Tip off is set for 7:00 PM.