Whenever St. Francis and Bishop Timon get together for a boy’s Monsignor Martin Association high school basketball game, there’s only one conclusion you can always draw from.
Neither team nor its fans like each other.
Last month St. Francis held serve on their home floor. Tuesday night the Tigers returned the favor. Mike Scarcello’s game-high 22 points led Timon to a 58-54 that was quite spirited both on the floor and in the stands.
Each foul seemed a little harder than normal between the bitter rivals, and each chant from the crowd contained more disdain for its opponent. In fact at the end of the third quarter a scuffle broke out in the stands, forcing a St. Francis assistant to drag one of the student’s away from the Timon side of the gymnasium. Police security was present for the remainder of the game.
On the court itself the Tigers erased a three point halftime deficit with a 9-0 run late in the third quarter on the strength of a pair of Scarcello buckets and five big points off the bench from sophomore Jordan Williams. Timon regained the lead, one they wouldn’t again relinquish.
“My other guards were struggling shooting the ball a little bit,” Timon coach Jim Polano said. “We got a spark from Williams off the bench. He hit two big shots for us off the bench.”
Timon led after three, 42-40 and pounded out a 14-6 run to start the fourth, highlighted with a dunk by senior forward Dut Dour.
From there the Tigers used an aggressive defense and timely offensive rebounding to thwart any Raiders comeback.
It was quite the difference from 24 hours ago, when Timon looked sluggish and overmatched in an 18 point loss to Nichols.
“We knew we were soft last night so we wanted to amp it up and get a big win and we did.” Scarcello said. “They are a rival and there’s a little more bad blood, so it’s good to come out on top.”
Kyle Kobis scored 12 points for Timon (17-5,7-3). Dour was held to seven points but contributed 11 rebounds.
Matt Reger led St. Francis (12-10, 6-5) with 14 points while Kyle Clifford added 11.
ELSEWHERE IN HIGH SCHOOL ACTION
North Tonawanda knocked off third-ranked large school Niagara Falls for the second time this season, defeating them 61-54. The Lumberjacks improved to 11-2 in Niagara Frontier League play and were led by Aaron Davis with 23 points. Darrik Bloomfield added 18.
East, the second-ranked large school in the Buffalo News poll, was embarrassed in a 31-point loss to McKinley. The reason the loss was embarrassing was due to the fact 10 players from the East team were suspended by the school for academic violations, forcing the roster to be filled with junior varsity players.
“They didn’t do what they were supposed to do,” East head coach Starling Bryant told Buffalo Sports Daily. “They didn’t hold up their end of the bargain. I don’t know how long they will be out. It could be a week. It could be the rest of the season.”
Other Yale Cup winners included Lafayette, Bennett and South Park.
In other big games, Orchard Park edged Lancaster 61-60, Grand Island beat Lockport 79-67 and Maryvale got by Depew.
For a full list of finals and box scores, check out the Buffalo News high school page.
