Fast start lifts Manchester West basketball past Bishop Guertin

MANCHESTER - For the final three quarters of Monday night's boys basketball game, Bishop Guertin High School matched Manchester West point for point.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the first quarter wasn't nearly that close.

West outscored Bishop Guertin 23-12 in the first quarter, and held off the Cardinals in the second half for a 73-63 win in Division I action. The win snapped a three-game losing streak in the division for the Blue Knights while Bishop Guertin dropped its third in a row.

Aaron Martin led West (2-3) with 21 points and Michael Gamache added 15 points as the Blue Knights went 14 for 19 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to hang on to the lead. Travis Descoteaux added 12 points and Nolan Flynn had 10 for West.

Jeff Lunn had 15 points to lead the Cardinals (2-3), but was in foul trouble in the second half, picking up his fifth with 4:45 left in the game. CJ Boykin added 10 points, but he also had to sit for stretches because of fouls, picking up his fourth in the third quarter, just 10 seconds before Lunn got his fourth.

Logan Kesty had nine points before he, too, fouled out while Bradley Holler and Jordan Corbin also chipped in with nine points each. The Cardinals were without starter Joe McCarthy (coach's decision).

"We put ourselves in a hole," Bishop Guertin coach Jim Migneault said. "We couldn’t play man-to-man to save our lives, which was not good. At times we moved the ball well and at other times, we had people trying to do too much and the ball was turned over. I thought West played very, very well. They shot well, they moved the ball, they played as a team and I think that’s what the difference was."

In the first quarter, the difference for West was Martin. The senior scored 11 points in the first six minutes of the game, including an alley-oop layup from Gamache to open the game. But West's offense went cold for most of the second quarter and the Cardinals were able to cut the lead to five at halftime.

Back-t0-back baskets by Corbin cut the lead to one, 38-37, with 4:22 left in the third quarter, but Bishop Guertin got away from what had been working for it and West took advantage. The Blue Knights went on a 10-1 run to go back up by double digits.

"We got it to one and then we had three turnovers in a row," Migneault said. "We got it to one by playing as a team and then we had a couple of people try to do it on their own and turned it over. That’s the story the last three games. We play well, we get it close and then we just don’t finish the game."

By the end of the third, West's lead was back to 11 points, and the Blue Knights stretched it to 12 early in the fourth before the Cardinals made a run.

Ivan Ilic made one of two free throws to give West a 54-42 lead with 6:17 to play, but Bishop Guertin went on a 16-8 run, pulling within four points on two free throws by Kesty with 2:02 to go. But the Blue Knights were 7 for 8 from the line down the stretch, and the one miss was put back by Descoteaux.

The Cardinals had lost their previous two games by a combined 11 points, but despite the losing streak, Migneault hasn't hit the panic button yet.

"It’s early enough in the season that you can recover from this kind of thing," he said. "We just go back to work, that’s all. We have a lot of games left. It’s a matter of getting a first-round playoff game at home and then we’ll probably have to go on the road. It happens. I’ve got a lot of seniors and I think we’ll pull it together. We’ll be fine."

Bishop Guertin will host its first Friday night game of the season on Jan. 13 when Spaulding comes to town. Last year, the Cardinals defeated the Raiders in the Division I quarterfinals.