STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — There really is no easy way to prepare to play at Moore Catholic\u2019s ban box gym in Graniteville and the tight confines usually can be an advantage for the home team.<\/p>\n
Just over a year ago, the Mavs took out Monsignor Farrell 46-44 in a nip-and-tuck battle where Lions sophomore shooting guard Jack Gomez had a tough night at the office.<\/p>\n
The now-junior remembered the struggle and was prepared to change the script as the Oakwood school looked to stay hot, seeking the team\u2019s fourth win in a row after an 0-4 start.<\/p>\n
Behind a stellar defensive effort and a big game from Gomez, who scored a team-high 17 points, the Lions continued their winning ways with a 62-46 CHSAA A decision over the host team in a game where the winners led from start to finish.<\/p>\n
The Lions also got solid performances from fellow juniors Ryan Hanley and Michael Abreu, who scored 15 and 14 points respectively, while senior JJ Yates added eight.<\/p>\n
Eenej Vinson scored a game-high 22 markers for the Mavs, while Nick DeGrado (three treys) chipped in with 13.<\/p>\n
Farrell\u2019s ball movement and unselfish play in finding the open man keyed the victory and also keyed the successful shooting night from downtown from Gomez, who banged five triples to spark the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack (Gomez) saw a lot of quality minutes and got a lot of experience as a sophomore on varsity, but when we played here last year he had a rough one,\u201d stated Farrell first-year head man Danny Fisher. \u201cBut he\u2019s such a hard worker that he learned from it last year and I believe it has made him an even better player this year. I\u2019m really proud of him because it shows his growth as a leader and as a basketball player.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was focused early on and stuck to the pre-game ritual,\u201d said Gomez. \u201cI knew it was a tough game here last year and wanted to change that. Once the first shot went down, I got some confidence and wanted to keep shooting. My dad always tells me to keep shooting and that\u2019s what I did. We have been working on finding the open man in practice and I\u2019m glad it worked tonight. We have been bonding as a team and we feel good about where we are right now after a tough start,\u201d added the sharpshooter.<\/p>\n
Hanley canned a top of the key trey for the game\u2019s first points and Matt Scalisi\u2019s corner jumper upped the Lions lead to 10-5 midway through the first before Gomez nailed his first trey of the game from the top of the key to make it 15-8 and give Farrell its biggest lead of the period. DeGrado would answer the Gomez three, but Gavin Mullen converted a pretty feed from Ryan Tait to end the quarter with Farrell leading 17-11.<\/p>\n
Back-to-back buckets from Yates and a Hanley lay-in increased the lead to 23-11 early in the second and the Lions were able to maintain a double-digit lead for the remainder of the contest to keep the winning streak intact for Fisher.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe play in a tough league and especially these Island games are always emotional no matter where they are played, but we have changed our guys\u2019 mindset in learning how to compete every day in practice as well as games,\u201d said Fisher. \u201cWe got off to a tough start and just weren\u2019t able to finish games, but now we feel we\u2019re getting better every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe executed the game plan offensively and defensively,\u201d said Fisher. \u201cWe\u2019re making the right pass and playing unselfishly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gomez (two threes) and Abreu teamed for all of the Lions\u2019 14 third-quarter markers, but it was the team\u2019s hustle and effort defensively that kept the Mavs at bay and allowed just a pair of third period field goals to halt any idea of a comeback.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
NOTES: Farrell will host St. Edmund\u2019s Tuesday afternoon at 4, while the Mavs entertain Salesian at 7 before both teams hit the tourney trail over the Christmas break … The Lions head to Daytona Beach, Fla., while Moore will trek down the Jersey Shore for a tournament in Wildwood … Vinson, who was 10-12 from the stripe, led Moore with nine boards. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — There really is no easy way to prepare to play at Moore Catholic\u2019s ban…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-76479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}