In a battle all the way through the final seconds, St Anthony defeated Bishop Montgomery 52-47 on Wednesday night in a huge Del Rey League matchup.
From the start of the game both teams were playing very physical with each other and assuring themselves that nothing would be easy in this matchup.
“We knew it would be a dog fight. It always is with Bishop Montgomery,” said Saints coach Alan Mitchell. “I knew it was going to be physical. I knew it was going to come down to one or two possessions, and I think we capitalized.”
The Saints took a four point lead into half time after a 30 foot buzzer beater from Jaayden Bush. However, the third quarter was not their prettiest. In a span of eight minutes , they managed to only score six points and have an uncomfortable amount of turnovers which resulted in them trailing by two headed into the final quarter.
“I think the ball movement and energy was low in the third quarter. But the message to them was that we have to fight,” said Mitchell. “Adversity is going to come in life and in the game. The message was to fight. We are soldiers, we have to communicate, and we have to execute.”
Bishop Montgomery held a slim three point lead midway through the final quarter. The lead was finally reclaimed by the Saints just inside of two minutes after Bush knocked down two free throws.
With 17 seconds remaining and down by one, the Knights had another chance at stealing this game away, but instead it was Jaayden Bush that came up with the steal, taking the ball away on the inbounds pass and laying it in to extend their lead to three. Bishop Montgomery with no timeouts left tried to scramble for a last second shot, but it fell short and the Saints would come out on top.
“We went down but we stayed composed. We are a senior heavy team so we fought back and didn’t drop our heads and executed late to get the win,” said St Anthony guard Jaayden Bush.
Saints were paced by Bush who finished with 22 points, as well as Elijah Price who finished with 11 points and six rebounds.
