November 22, 2014
At Matignon High School, the St. John’s Boys Bantams took on St. Raphael of Medford. St. John’s trailed by a point with 1:50 left in the half before clamping down on defense and outscoring St. Raphael 34-17 the rest of the way to open the season with a win.
Jason Aucone got the first basket of the season for St. John’s to even the score at two and then followed on a feed from Cole Keough to take the lead. Kaden Quirk answered a Medford basket with a jumper to make it 6-6 at the 11:02 mark of the first half. St. John’s started to pull ahead on two jumpers by Cole Keough, an Alex Greenfield drive, and an offensive putback by Luke Pulaski to make it 14-10. But St. Raphael would score the next five points during a 7-2 run to lead 17-16 with 1:50 left in the half. St. John’s went to a full court man to man press and finished the half on an 8-1 surge to head into the half leading 24-18.
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St. John’s continued the defensive intensity early. Andrew Augustin came up with an early steal and found an open Cole Keough to start things off. But St. Raphael wouldn’t go away, they scored the next ten points to pull ahead 28-26. At this point, Andrew Augustin showed his defensive prowness. He came up with back to back steals leading to a Cam O’Brien hoop and then took the ball the length of the court for a lay up igniting a 7-0 run as St. John’s took a 33-28 lead. After a St. Raphael basket cut the lead to three, St. John’s simply took over. They dominated both offensively and defensively as they scored the next 26 points to pull away. The highlight was a Kaden Quirk block of the tallest Medford player.
For St. John’s, Andrew Augustin led the way with 12 points and 8 rebounds. Cole Keough(10 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists) and Luke Pulaski(10points,9 rebounds) each finished in double figures scoring. Jason Aucone had a solid all around game with 6 points, 4 rebounds, and an assist. The story of the game was the St. John’s defense which totally shut down St. Raphael by holding them scoreless for over seven minutes in the second half as St. John’s opened the season with a 59-34 win.
