Spartans come through in clutch

When undefeated Holy Spirit needed a key basket down the stretch in last night's showdown with gritty St. Augustine, it turned to 6-foot-9 Ryan Brooks and 6-3 B.J. Bailey.

They turned out to be the difference, combining for 16 fourth-quarter points - 10 by the Rhode Island-bound Brooks - as Holy Spirit held off visiting St. Augustine, 70-62, in front of a sellout crowd and took over sole possession of first place in the Cape-Atlantic National I race.

"When you're in that situation, you're looking for your horses to step up," Holy Spirit coach Jamie Gillespie said, "and they did."

Brooks had a dominating second half, scoring 19 of his career-high 26 points; he also finished with seven rebounds and five assists.

"I had to step up for the team," Brooks said. "When the pressure was on, we got our game together."

Holy Spirit (13-0, 4-0 division), ranked No. 1 in South Jersey by The Inquirer, built a 14-point lead late in the first quarter, but St. Augustine (9-2, 3-1), sparked by Josh Thompson and Bill Giberson, sliced the deficit to 27-26 at halftime.

"They switched to a zone and we lost our focus and aggressiveness," Gillespie said. "I was very unhappy at the half. When you have a team down, you have to put them away.

"I was disappointed, but I was proud of the way we responded in the second half."

After freshman Isaiah Morton (13 points) hit two free throws to give St. Augustine a 29-27 lead early in the third quarter, Brooks ignited an 11-2 run by scoring nine points - a follow-up on his own shot, a three-pointer from the right wing, and a dunk on a pretty feed from Bailey (15 points, six assists), to give the Spartans a 38-31 lead.

Bailey, one of South Jersey's best juniors, hit a three-pointer late in the third quarter to help Holy Spirit take a 50-41 lead into the final quarter.

Then Brooks took over.

"We talked at the half about getting the ball to him inside," Gillespie said. "We did a poor job in the second quarter of taking advantage of our size."

Despite Brooks' inside dominance, St. Augustine stayed close thanks to the scoring of the Wagner-bound Thompson (21 points) and the sizzling free-throw shooting of Morton, a darting freshman who was 2 for 13 from the floor but 9 for 9 from the foul line.

St. Augustine was 13 for 14 from the foul line in the final quarter, and when Thompson connected on two free throws with 56.8 seconds remaining, Holy Spirit's lead was trimmed to 64-61.

But Brooks scored on a baseline drive with 40 seconds to play and, after a Hermits turnover, Bailey secured the win with two free throws with 29.8 seconds remaining.

St. Augustine coach Paul Rodio was pleased with his team's effort. Two of the Hermits' starters transferred - one before the season, one during the season. Another projected returning starter, 6-6 Jack Crawford, decided to bypass basketball to lift weights for football. Crawford has a football scholarship to Penn State.

"No basketball team - not St. Anthony, not St. Patrick or anybody - has gone through more adversity than we have," Rodio said. "We've lost a lot of kids, but the [other] kids have responded. I have nothing but good things to say about them. We've set our goals. In March, we want to be a team that, when somebody looks at their bracket, they say they don't want to play [us]."

Notes.

Giovanny Perdomo contributed 11 points and seven rebounds for Holy Spirit. . . . St. Augustine's winning streak ended at eight games. . . . Holy Spirit's 6-8 Matt DeSouza, playing with a brace on his dislocated right shoulder, returned to the lineup after missing a game. DeSouza scored nine points.

St. Augustine 10 16 15 21 - 62

Holy Spirit 22 5 23 20 - 70

SA: Josh Thompson 21, Pete Dandrea 5, Bill Giberson 11, Paul Rodio 3, Junior Chapman 5, Darnell Laws 4, Isaiah Morton 13.

HS: B.J. Bailey 15, Ryan Brooks 26, Matt DeSouza 9, Sean McGonigal 5, Giovanny Perdermo 11, Preston Smith 4.