BANGOR _ St. Joseph’s College standout sophomore Carl Howell may not have been in a funk Mon- day night, but he certainly was near one for the entire Maine Ath- letic Conference basketball final.
Chris Funk, that is.
The versatile Husson College sophomore hounded Howell for the full 36 minutes he was in the game, holding the 6-foot-6 inside force to only eight shots as the Braves post- ed an 87-85 win over their archri- vals, the Monks.
With the win the Braves advance to the NAIA National Tournament in Nampa, Idaho, for the sixth time in nine years. Husson, the MAC tourney’s No. 2 seed, is 20-11, while No. 1 St. Joseph’s finished at 21-6.
The national tourney begins March 12.
“How good is Chris Funk?” Hus- son coach Warren Caruso asked af- ter the 6-5 Caribou native had held Howell to 11 points and the Braves had held off a furious St. Joe’s fin- ishing rally.
Good enough.
In addition to putting the shack- les on the conference’s second- leading scorer _ a man who scored 52 points in one regular-season game _ Funk also scored 20 of his own, dished out seven assists, and pounded the boards for seven re- bounds to help pace a balanced Braves attack.
“I try to use my quickness over his strength,” Funk said. “When he’s down on the block, he’s strong. So I’ve got to make sure I use my quickness to get around him and constantly stay in front of him and harass him.”
Caruso said the win was impor- tant to his players because the Braves hadn’t been respected by voters who had ranked them fifth in Maine _ behind UM-Presque Isle and St. Joseph’s _ the past two weeks. The Braves were still fifth after five straight wins and a vic- tory over the Monks to end the reg- ular season.
“Our kids are winners,” Caruso said. “We struggled with some things down the stretch, but we maintained our composure and made some foul shots, handled the ball at the right time, and won the game.”
Junior guard Tony Tobin pitched in with 27 points, Brian Alley had 20 points and an efficient 8-for-10 ef- fort from the floor, and wiry Sean Foye scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
Tobin said the effort of Funk and the rest of the Husson frontcourt on Howell was a key.
“A great player is going to get his points. It’s a matter of how hard he has to work to earn them,” Tobin said.
The Braves edged out to a 47-35 halftime lead, held off one Monks threat, and led 80-62 with 5:17 left before St. Joseph’s responded with an Erby derby.
Erby Mitchell, a lightning-quick guard, terrorized the Braves over the next five minutes, scoring 11 points, grabbing three steals, and assisting on another hoop as the Monks made a charge.
“I think we were just thinking like fighters,” said Mitchell, who finished with 18 points in 24 min- utes. “Our backs were against the ropes and we had to come out swinging. It was either put up or shut up.”
The Monks nearly achieved the former, reeling off 15 straight points and getting within a single possession at 86-83 wiuth 18.7 sec- onds to go.
But the Monks never got the ball with a chance to tie, as Tobin nailed one of two free throws with 9.8 seconds left, Kyle Sewer (28 points, seven rebounds) answered with a layup with 2.7 seconds left, and Husson’s Mike McCaffrey was able to dribble out the clock on the ensuing inbounds pass.
“They kept making a run,” Funk said. “For a second there, it was kind of hairy. But we just stuck to our guns and made sure we held strong with the ball, and just made our free throws at the end.”
Foye said Caruso calmed the Braves during a late timeout.
“He didn’t see that twinkle in our eye, that fierce competitiveness in our eye,” Foye said.
Braves 87, Monks 85
Husson men (20-11) St. Joseph’s (21-6)
Name GAG FAFTPName GAG FAFTP
Sompatzis 2 2 0 0 5 Sewer 8 17111128
McCaffrey 0 4 0 0 0 Bernard 3 6 0 0 6
Tobin 8 147 8 27Mitchell 4 11101318
Foye 6 131 1 13Sanicola 2 6 0 0 4
Funk 7 166 8 20Fortier 4 8 0 0 8
Alley 8 104 6 20Hynes 2 2 0 1 4
Cotto 1 2 0 0 2 Zalieckas 2 6 0 0 4
Olson 0 0 0 0 0 Howell 5 8 1 3 11
Moorhead 0 0 0 0 0
White 1 1 0 0 2
Totals 3261 182387 Totals3165 222885
Husson 47 87
St. Joseph’s 35 85
3-pt. goals: Husson (5-18): Sompatzis 1-1, McCaffrey 0-2, Tobin 4-10, Foye 0-2, Funk 0-2, Cotto 0-1; St. Joseph’s (1-15): Sewer 1-5, Bernard 0-1, Mitchell 0-2, Sanicola 0-2, Fortier 0-4, Howell 0-1 Attendance: 500
Comments
comments for this post are closed