BREWER – Mike Miragliuolo’s high school varsity coaching debut was much more successful than Mark Reed’s.

In a battle of rookie Big East coaches, Miragliuolo’s John Bapst Crusaders got the best of Reed’s Brewer Witches with a come-from-behind 47-43 victory at Brewer High’s gym Friday night.

The Crusaders had to mount a furious fourth quarter comeback to make a winner of Miragliuolo, who replaced longtime coaching icon Bob Cimbollek, who retired last summer. John Bapst outscored Brewer 20-10 in the final quarter, but it was three Brewer turnovers in the final two minutes that allowed the Crusaders to erase a 41-36 Brewer advantage with 1:40 to play.

“I played against him growing up and coached against him in JV, and just like usual, he had them ready,” said Miragliuolo. “I told Mark I hope they’re not all like this or I don’t know how long I’ll last.”

Senior center Charlie Owen led the Crusaders by scoring six of their final 13 points and igniting a game-winning 8-2 run with a rebound and basket off a missed 1-and-1 free throw by teammate Doug Russell with 2:35 left.

“I thought that was a real big play,” said Reed. “You just can’t let that happen.”

Owen missed an opportunity to tie it up and go ahead after missing his own 1-and-1 with 1:11 left, but senior forward Ned Payne stole the ball from Brewer’s Trevor Killip and scored on a one-handed scoop shot with 56 seconds to play.

“I didn’t want to go over the back of Killip when he got the rebound, so I just stayed back and waited for him to bring it out,” said Payne, who finished with 10 points and five rebounds despite battling constant, as-yet-undiagnosed pain in both calves. “Then I just took my chance and got it.

“I scored on kind of a weird hook shot. It was one of those that you’re not thinking about too much. You just heave it up and hope it goes in.”

The score was Bapst’s first lead (42-41) since the opening 69 seconds of the second half, but the Crusaders made it stick.

“This is my senior season and I really want to win. For the last few years, I’ve lived under the shadow of Mike Mathien and Tim Mathien, but this is a new year and we have a great new coach,” said Owen, who finished with a game-high 15 points and 10 rebounds. “We know we can win. We just have to be more than a one-man team.”

Both teams’ man-to-man defenses kept points at a premium as Brewer shot 34.2 percent from the field and Bapst shot 31.2.

“They played us tough defensively. I couldn’t believe we were only in the mid 20s going into the fourth quarter,” said Miragliuolo.

Brewer got off to a slow start as a Bapst 3-point play made it 14-6 Crusaders with 6:02 left in the first half, but the Witches helped force four turnovers and went on an 8-1 run to get things even. In the third quarter, the Witches began attacking the lane, drawing fouls or scoring easy baskets off lay-ins or rebounds. The result was a 14-3 run that made it 33-23 Brewer with 2:34 left in the third.

Bapst responded by scoring nine of the next 11 points to set up the fourth quarter drama.

“I was real happy with the defense … It came down to one or two possessions at the end and we didn’t take real good advantage of them,” Reed said. “We made some young mistakes with some guys being in the game who haven’t been in those situations enough to know how to win yet. We just have to learn from those situations.”

Brewer was led by Killip, who finished with eight points and six rebounds. No Witches’ player scored in double figures.

Crusaders 47, Witches 43

John Bapst (1-0) Brewer (0-1)

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

Payne 2 13 6 7 10 Sargent 1 3 0 0 3

McCree 2 5 1 2 5 Bouzan-Kalstn 0 2 8 8 8

Snyder 0 0 0 0 0 Goupee 0 1 0 0 0

Jellison 2 2 1 2 5 Freeman 2 5 2 2 8

Day 2 6 0 0 5 Bell 2 5 1 2 5

Connole 0 0 0 0 0 Killip 4 8 0 0 8

Temble 0 0 0 1 0 Drillen 2 5 1 1 5

Myerowitz 0 1 5 6 5 Work 1 5 2 2 4

Russell 0 3 2 3 2 Chasse 0 0 0 0 0

Owen 5 11 4 5 15 Archer 1 4 0 0 2

Baldus 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 13 41 19 26 47 Totals 13 38 14 15 43

John Bapst 11 18 27 47

Brewer 6 17 33 43

3-pt. goals: John Bapst (2-5): Owen 1-1, Day 1-2, Myerowitz 0-1, Russell 0-1; Brewer (3-8): Freeman 2-4, Sargent 1-1, Bouzan-Kaloustian 0-1, Goupee 0-1, Drillen 0-1

Preliminary: John Bapst JVs 57-42

Attendance: 800 (est.)