Xavier Boys Beat Back Manchester in Class LL First Round

Running the pick-and-roll to perfection, Mike Boornazian scored 27 points and Jovan Santos added 19, leading No. 17 Xavier to a 72-63 victory over No. 16 Manchester in the first round of the Class LL state tournament in Manchester Monday night.

“We were scoring on our pick-and-roll and they had a hard time stopping it, so we just kept running it,” Xavier coach Mike Kohs said. 

Added Santos: “Mike commands a lot of attention, so it makes it easier for me.  If I set screen, he’s going to get attention from two people and he’ll find me every time. Mike’s a terrific player.” 

Xavier's two-man game of Boornazian and Santos was more than enough to negate a spectacular shooting performance from diminutive Manchester guard Christian Walker.

Mike Manion and Pat D’Amato each had 10 points for Xavier (14-7), which dominated on both ends. The Falcons out-rebounded Manchester (13-8) 33-21 and their matchup zone relegated the Indians to a jump-shooting team.  

To that end, Xavier, which advances to play at No. 1 seed Windsor (19-1) on Wednesday, was content to let the 5-foot-8 Walker (30 points, including nine 3-pointers) try to beat them himself.  

The game plan couldn't have worked better. Jaquel Edwards (14 points) was the only other Indian in double figures and the only tie of the game came in the opening minutes at 3-3. 

“The key was we were trying to contain (point guard Kavohn) Townsend,” Kohs said. “He is the kid that makes them go. We were trying to stop his penetration and we did a very good job of that. Of course, that leads to a couple of kick-outs and Walker was on fire, so you have to kind of pick your poison.” 

The combination of Boornazian and Santos was like a lethal injection for Manchester, which had no answer inside and trailed by double-digits for most of the game. 

Case in point: When the Indians cut a 17-point lead to nine at 52-43 with 7:04 left in the fourth quarter, Santos scored on a pick-and-roll with Boornazian, who added a 3-point play moments later to make it a 14-point game. 

“We are not a physical team,” Manchester coach Bob Healy said. “We have some length, but we are not real physical, so that has been a little bit of a problem for us against physical interior players and it showed tonight.” 

Manchester cut the lead to eight on two separate occasions late in the fourth, but Xavier closed the game by hitting 14 of its final 16 free throws. 

“They were making threes, shooting the ball well in the fourth quarter, but we were able to make enough foul shots to maintain the lead. We did a nice job closing the game out,” Kohs said. 

The game was played at breakneck speed from the get-go.  Santos scored 10 points in the first quarter and D’Amato hit a pair of 3-pointers, as the Falcons jumped out to a 26-15 lead. 

Walker kept the Indians afloat in the first half with five 3-pointers, but the Falcons had the Indians right where they wanted them. Manchester was shooting long jump shots, which led to long rebounds and easy points in transition. 

“We knew because they were going to shoot a lot of threes, there were going to be long rebounds,” Kohs said. “So we were on our guys all week about boxing out every possession. We did a very good job with that.” 

“The way 23 was shooting the ball, they made it tough,” Santos said. ‘They stayed in the game. If he wasn’t so hot I think this game wouldn’t have been as close.” 

Wednesday’s matchup with Windsor will be infinitely tougher. The Warriors have won 22 straight and knocked off a pair of unbeatens (Northwest Catholic and Maloney-Meriden) during their run to the Central Connecticut Conference championship last week. 

“They are a really good team, but if we play the way we played (tonight) it’s going to be a better game than people think,” Santos said.

Said Kohs: “Right now we’re happy about tonight’s win. We’ll worry about Windsor tomorrow.”

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