St. Ben's 68, St. Patrick 62

PISCATAWAY - After six tries, Danny Hurley finally has his first win over Kevin Boyle.

St. Benedict's beat St. Patrick, 68-62, in the final game of the night in the PrimeTime Shootout at the Rutgers Athletic Center. Boyle had been 5-0 against Hurley, including a victory last year that knocked St. Benedict's from atop the perch of the USA Today Super 25 poll after just one week.

"This one's a little special because they've beaten us a couple times," Hurley said.

The Gray Bees, No. 3 in the ESPN Top 25, are now 20-1, while two-time defending Tournament of Champions winner St. Pat's dropped to 17-4. Luckily for the Celtics, the Bees aren't a member of the NJSIAA and don't play in the state playoffs..

The difference in the game was that the St. Benedict's frontcourt of Louisville-bound big man Samardo Samuels and junior Greg Echenique clearly outplayed the St. Patrick frontcourt of Kansas commit Quintrell Thomas and Paris Bennett. Samuels and Echenique outscored Thomas and Bennett, 42-13, and out-rebounded them, 17-6

"It feels good, I think we deserve it," said Samuels, the newly minted McDonald's All-American who scored a game- and season-high tying 30 points to go with six rebounds that led to team MVP honors. "We work hard, and hopefully this can keep a trend and we can return the favor and beat them every year, like they used to do to us."

"Samardo's a great player," Hurley added. "We've had some great players and Samardo is maybe the greatest because he was able to put us over the hump in this game."

Samuels compared the game to a playoff atmosphere.

"This is our championship game right here," he said. "We look forward to this game."

Echenique, who is considering Duke, Rutgers, Pitt, Miami, Maryland and Penn, added 12 points and 11 boards and freshman Myck Kabongo had 12 points, all from the stripe, including two in the final seconds. Paterson's Tamir Jackson had five points and nine rebounds.

"Often we're as physical or more physical than high school teams," Boyle said. "They were more physical and bigger with body mass. They beat us up on the offensive glass."

North Carolina commit Dexter Strickland paced the Celtics with 20 of his 29 points in the second half despite sitting out the first period for disciplinary reasons. 6-5 freshman forward Michael Gilchrist, sporting a mohawk, also looked good for St. Pat's and ended with 10 points and nine boards. Senior guard Jermel Jenkins added 10 points.

Thomas managed just four points and six rebounds for the Celtics. He was elbowed in the face by Renardo Sidney of Fairfax (Calif) in a recent loss, and perhaps he is still a bit tentative in the paint.

St. Ben's led 60-53 with a couple minutes remaining, but Strickland scored all nine points in a 9-4 St. Pat's run that cut the lead to 64-62.

Mike Machado made two foul shots with 34.4 seconds left to push the St. Ben's lead back to 66-62.

Dean Kowalski missed both foul shots with 24 seconds left for St. Pat's, and Kabongo hit two more for the Bees to make it 68-62.

"We're used to beating great teams," Hurley said. "This was a major psychological hurdle that we were able to overcome. And now we have to try to avoid a letdown against teams that maybe aren't as well known."

Comments

[threepointz]

From what I've heard, Machado prefers to be called by his middle name, Scott.