Trinity boys basketball hangs on for win over Bishop Guertin

MANCHESTER - Scoring 43 points in a half and leading by 12 at halftime are things that typically lead a high school boys basketball team to victory.

Holding a team scoreless for an entire quarter, and without a field goal for 12 minutes, is another way to win a basketball game.

But when opposing teams do it to each other in the same game, something has to give, and Friday night, it was Trinity that exploded on offense in the first half and survived a massive drought in the second to beat Bishop Guertin 59-54 in a rematch of last year's Division I championship game.

The Pioneers made seven 3-pointers in the first half and led by as many as 18 points before going to the locker room with a 43-31 advantage. But the Cardinals outscored Trinity 12-0 in the third quarter to tie it, holding the Pioneers scoreless for almost 10 minutes and without a field goal for more than 12.

Then it was Bishop Guertin's turn to go cold from the field, and Trinity made just enough free throws at the end to leave the court with a win.

Wenyin Gabriel led the Pioneers (10-1) with 18 points while Carmen Giampetruzzi added 14 and Ryan Otis had 13. Kyle Gavin was the only one in double figures for the Cardinals (10-2) with 12, while C.J. Boykin and Joe Marandola added nine each.

"Very thankful we got out with a win," Trinity coach David Keefe said. "I always come in (at halftime), I don't care what the score is, if we're up or down, you've got 16 more minutes left. You've got to get back after it. But you're dealing with kids who are 16- and 17-years-old, sometimes they look at you like 'sure, we've got this under control.' Hopefully, they learned a pretty good lesson that you've got to play, you've got to get after it."

The feeling was similar for Bishop Guertin coach Jim Migneault.

"You're never happy with a loss, but I'm happy that my kids competed," he said. "We just have to play 32 minutes. We played a good 16. We held them to 19 points in the second half and I thought our defense was very good. We just got behind early."

The Cardinals fell behind 23-7 in the first quarter, as the Pioneers made four 3-pointers in the game's first eight minutes. The lead ballooned to 32-14 early in the second before Bishop Guertin went on a 17-8 run to cut the lead to nine. But Otis hit a buzzer-beating 3 - his fourth - to put the Pioneers up 43-31 at the break.

"The first half, they were just raining them," Migneault said. "I told the kids I didn't think they could keep it up at that pace. We went back to the man-to-man and we got up in their face. They're a good offensive team and they were moving and cutting so we started shutting the lane down to keep the big guys off the boards. "

Keefe thought that defensive switch might help his team, but it ended up hurting the Pioneers.

"Usually, they play a matchup zone but they came out man-to-man and I felt good about that," he said. "I don’t think we shared the ball as well as we did in the first quarter. There was a bit of inconsistency in our offense and give credit to BG. They got back in the game."

But while the Cardinals were able to get back in the game, they missed out on several opportunities to take the lead.

"We came down with it 43-43 like four times, got wide-open looks and didn't make any shots," Migneault said. "If we make a shot and get the lead, maybe we change it a little bit."

Instead, Gabriel opened the fourth with four straight free throws to put Trinity up 47-43. After a jumper by Marandola made it a two-point game again, Trinity's Brad Rhodes made a layup for the Pioneers first field goal since the buzzer-beater by Otis.

Trinity's lead went from four to six points until Boykin hit a 3 with 7.2 seconds left to make it 57-54, but Gabriel and Otis each made a free throw to secure the win.