Gillespie, Wood shoot past La Salle
The recipe for success for the Archbishop Wood basketball team isn't complicated. Getting the ingredients to coalesce, however, has been a challenge at times.
The recipe for success for the Archbishop Wood basketball team isn't complicated. Getting the ingredients to coalesce, however, has been a challenge at times.
The Vikings had no such worries Friday night against La Salle in a 73-63 victory in front of a raucous home crowd.
The win was the third straight for Wood (10-7, 4-5), which had lost four straight games in Catholic League play before its recent streak.
The biggest difference: playing team basketball.
"I think they realized that if they trust each other, trust in the system and play together, they're hard to beat," said coach John Mosco.
Collin Gillespie led the Vikings' offensive attack with 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting, including 3 of 5 from three.
"I think he grew up a little bit today," Mosco said.
However, the junior guard who had started only seven games entering this season pointed elsewhere to explain his success.
"I really rely on Tommy [Funk] because he's older," Gillespie said of Funk, a senior leader for the Vikings. "He played all last year and a lot his sophomore year. I really rely on him. He lifts my confidence and then it's up to me to do that for the sophomores and freshmen that come up."
Funk was locked in a fun-to-watch point guard battle with his La Salle counterpart, Jarrod Stukes.
Ryan McTamney led the Explorers (14-4, 6-3) with 18 points, but, Stukes, a junior, finished with 14 and added seven steals and six rebounds.
If Wood's success was indeed from increased ball movement, Funk was its main facilitator, dishing nine assists to go with 12 points.
Overall, the Vikings shot 24 of 44 (54 percent) and 8 of 20 from three (40 percent).
Defensively, Wood gave up just eight points in the decisive third quarter after the teams played the first half to a 30-all stalemate.
The Vikings' offense secured ample separation by scoring 21 points in the third.
"It was big," Gillespie said. "We're getting our confidence back. Going into the playoffs it's big because we're playing together, we're starting to move the ball and we're hitting our shots. When we play confidently we're one of the better teams in the league, we believe."
Arch. Wood 14 16 21 22 - 73
La Salle 15 15 8 25 - 63
AW: Collin Gillespie 23, Tyree Pickron 13, Keith Otto 5, Tommy Funk 12, Matt Cerruit 7, Seth Pinkney 1, James Gillespie 5, Andrew Funk 7.
LS: Jarrod Stukes 14, Ryan McTamney 18, Shane Stark 9, Matt Paulus 8, Daniel Remolde 2, Zach Crisler 5, Isaiah Jones 1, Phil Held 6.
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