St. Joseph basketball team's stellar season ends with loss in sectional final

As one of four starters who will return next year to a St. Joseph High School basketball team that overachieved, sophomore Tyree Ford was able to take some solace in a season-ending 45-39 loss to Camden Catholic in Thursday’s Non-Public A South final.

“At the beginning of the season people doubted us,” Ford said. “We wanted to come out and prove people wrong. We played until the end, so I’m fine with it, but for the seniors – (starter) Dan (Young) and (reserve) Casley (Goodwill) – I feel bad for them that we had to end on that note.”

St. Joseph concludes its campaign with a 23-5 record that included dramatic buzzer-beating victories in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinals and finals.

The Falcons still appeared to have some magic left  against Camden Catholic, which saw its eight-point lead with 90 seconds remaining dwindle to three points less than a minute later after K-Shawn Schulters converted consecutive turnovers into layups, making the score 42-39 with 40 seconds left.

After Camden Catholic forward Uche Okafor (6-foot-6), who teamed with frontcourt mate Babatunde Ajike (6-foot-5) to combine for 23 points and 20 rebounds, was called for traveling on the ensuing possession with 30 seconds remaining, St. Joseph had a chance to tie, but the Falcons turned the ball over and were forced to foul with nine ticks left.

Dominic Dunn, whose team was in the double bonus, calmly sank two free throws to produce the final margin as the Fighting Irish (23-6) extended their winning streak to nine games while winning their first sectional crown since 2010 and advancing to Saturday’s Non-Public A final.

Few expected St. Joseph, which lost to graduation or transfer five players who accounted for 97 percent of the team’s scoring, to win the Red Division title, defend its league tournament championship and reach a sectional final under rookie head coach Mike Thompson, who was hired in late September.

“It just came together,” said Thompson, who credits his players with St. Joseph’s success. “They are St. Joe’s kids. They understand what winning is all about. They understand what hard work is, so they made it easy for the coaches to come in and get to know them and get the season going. It’s all to the kids.”

Despite shooting a frigid 21 percent (4 of 19) from the floor in the opening half, the Falcons trailed just 19-13 at the intermission.

Camden Catholic, which ran a deliberate halfcourt offense designed to milk the clock and dictate the tempo, scored the first four points of the second half, extending its lead to 23-13 before St. Joseph responded with an 11-4 run, closing the deficit to 27-24 with 1:49 left in the third quarter.

The St. Joseph student section – known as the Falcon Flock – had been relatively quiet but sprang to life when their team trimmed the gap to 34-32 on Howard McBurnie’s putback with 4:59 left in the fourth quarter.

St. Joseph, which never led, had a chance to take its first lead of the night on its ensuing possession, but a Schulters 3-point attempt from the left corner rimmed out, and the Falcons would get no closer.

Unlike the Fighting Irish, who made nine of their last nine attempts from the charity stripe, St. Joseph missed 4 of 5 foul shots down the stretch, contributing to its demise.

St. Joseph, which mixed its trademark man-to-man defense with a 2-1-2 zone to combat Camden Catholic’s frontcourt height advantage, climbed back into the game with a variety of full-court presses.

“We had to speed things up a little bit,” Thompson explained. “We couldn’t play at their pace, which is definitely more deliberate than we are used to. We felt with the speed of our guards – especially Ty and K-Shawn – we had to push it.”

The presence of Ajike and Okafor forced St. Joseph’s dribble-penetrators to alter their shots. Camden Catholic’s athletic frontcourt allowed the Fighting Irish to complement their own stellar man-to-man defense with a matchup zone that limited the Falcons to a lone 3-pointer, which Luke Fresco drained midway through the third quarter.

“With their frontcourt – how tall they were and how athletic they were – it made a big difference,” Ford said. “We just wanted to keep shooting with the hope they (the shots) would eventually fall.”

Camden Catholic aggressively contested every shot, making St. Joseph earn every point. Thompson said St. Joseph “took too many quick shots and missed too many foul shots.”

McBurnie and Schulters scored 12 points apiece, while Ford finished with 10 points.