Bapst battles past Hampden Payne helps undefeated Crusaders prevail in defensive struggle

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HAMPDEN – At one point, fans were joking that Thursday night’s game between John Bapst and Hampden Academy looked like a Bob Cimbollek tribute.

No, the longtime former Bapst coach famous for his deliberate, low-scoring shuffle offense wasn’t on hand at Hampden Academy’s gym, but his spirit seemed to be.

In this case, however, it wasn’t a deliberate attempt to slow down the tempo that produced a final score of 33-28 Bapst, it was due more to good defense and bad shooting.

“We went 12-for-42 [shooting],” said Hampden coach Andy Frace. “That’s ugly basketball. That’s disappointing.”

John Bapst (10-for-36) wasn’t much better from the field, but its defense was good enough to offset that and a subpar night at the foul line.

The Crusaders committed seven turnovers, none in the second half, and outrebounded the slightly bigger Broncos 35-32 overall and 12-10 in offensive boards to make up for their 27.8 field goal and 52.6 free throw shooting percentages.

A second quarter in which the teams shot a combined 5.6 percent from the floor (1-for-18) left the halftime score 12-11 Hampden.

“It wasn’t too exciting a game. Well, actually it was exciting, but not for scoring,” said Bapst senior forward Ned Payne, who led all players with 11 points and 10 rebounds. “I think it was our toughness on ‘D’ that made the difference. That’s carried us through most of the season.”

It’s the main reason the Crusaders are still unbeaten at 5-0.

“I’ve got to give credit to Hampden for defense, but our defense was just phenomenal,” said rookie head coach Mike Miragliuolo. “We’re allowing about 38, 39 points a game this year after this one. This was a heck of a win for us.”

John Bapst’s newly-unveiled 2-2-1 and 2-3 zone traps helped bottle up the Broncos (nine turnovers) as Hampden had trouble generating any offensive rhythm.

“When you hold a team to 33 points and you can’t score more than 28… wow,” Frace said. “Usually you get points off your defense and that didn’t happen. We only had one fast break basket all game.

“It was a horrible night offensively all the way around. We didn’t create any shots. I’ve never seen a team more out of synch offensively than us tonight.”

Bapst jumped on the Broncos, now 2-4, early with a 7-0 lead but the teams went back and forth through the second and third periods. After Payne hit three straight shots, including a 3-pointer, to open the third quarter, Bapst seized the lead (16-14) for good.

The Crusaders built their precarious lead to 27-21 with 2:03 left to play, but back-to-back hoops by Ben Keller and a 3-pointer by Justin DiFrederico (nine points) closed Hampden’s deficit to 31-28 with 35 seconds left. But with Hampden already having 10 fouls to Bapst’s five, the Crusaders had plenty of fouls to give and the Broncos were losing bodies as starters Owen Caron (nine points, nine boards) and Keller fouled out in the last 72 seconds.

Despite shooting 6-for-14 from the line in the last quarter, Bapst managed to fend off the Broncs.

“We actually are a good shooting team, believe it or not, but I think the game was so physical we got a bit worn down,” Miragliuolo said. “We’ll take it however we get it.”

Crusaders 33, Broncos 28

John Bapst (5-0) Hampden Academy (2-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Payne 4 15 2 4 11 DiFrederico 3 14 9

McCree 1 5 2 4 6 B.Keller 3 8 6

Snyder 0 1 0 0 0 Burke 0 0 0 0

Jellison 0 0 0 0 0 Paoletti 0 0

0ay 0 6 3 4 3 Paine 0 1 0 0

Tremble 0 0 0 0 0 Dionne 1 2 0 2

Keefe 0 1 0 0 0 Caron 4 7 1 9

Myerowitz 1 1 1 4 3 S.Keller 0 0

Russell 2 2 0 0 4 Russell 1 5 0 2

Owen 2 5 1 1 5 Quimby 0 3 0 0

Baldus 0 0 1 2 1

Totals 10 36 10 19 33 Totals 12 42 3 28

John Bapst 9 11 19 33

Hampden 10 12 18 28

3-pt. goals: John Bapst (1-8): Payne 1-4, Owen 0-1, Day 0-3; Hampden (1-6): DiFrederico 1-3, B. Keller 0-1, Paine 0-1, Quimby 0-1

Attendance: 650 (est.)

Preliminary: Hampden JVs 63-60