Charlie Murray and Branford Rogers made a habit this fall of coming up with clutch plays for St. Anne’s-Belfield’s football team.
Friday night they brought the same approach to the hardwood.
Murray and Rogers’ efforts, along with strong performances from Kodie Critzer and Jordan Davis proved enough to let STAB upset Fork Union with a 71-68 overtime win in a Prep League matchup.
“That was a great win that we needed — a dig-it-out, scrap-it-out type win,” said STAB coach Brian Kent.
Murray buried a 3-pointer that kickstarted STAB’s rally from an 11-point deficit and had a steal and a bucket with just under a minute to play that knotted the game at 58-58 and after a FUMA miss sent the game to overtime. Rogers hit a pair of threes in the second half but his most spectacular play came in extra time when he put STAB up 63-61 with an authoritative drive to the hoop, hit the bucket and drew a foul. Rogers made the ensuing foul shot and STAB (3-5) never relinquished the one-point lead, pulling away to the 3-point victory.
“To be honest I didn’t really know what was going on in the moment,” Rogers said. “I just kind of went up and tried to make it and got fouled.”
Critzer, as he often does, came up with clutch play after clutch play including a rebound on FUMA’s second-to-last chance shot in overtime with about 3.3 seconds left. His foul shots all but sealed the win as a desperation heave by Kion Brown came up short on Fork Union’s final possession. Critzer scored 19, including an 8-for-10 night at the line, dished out four assists and nabbed three steals.
Davis rose to the occasion in the second half after getting knocked around by FUMA’s Brown, a 6-foot-7 power forward who reportedly has offers at American University, Hartford and St. Francis (Pennsylvania), in the first half. Brown cleaned up on the boards and had 10 points before the break, but Davis managed to slow his assault on the glass and held him to five points in the second half and three in overtime.
“Coach stressed (Brown’s) left hand and Jordan really put a stop to it after the first half because coach Kent got into his ear and told him we’ve really got to stop this guy because he’s killing us down low,” Murray said.
Jeff Jones also helped Davis slow Brown with defensive help and finished with 10 points on the night, but his most memorable play came at the start of overtime as he drove to the rim before making a spectacular short pass back to a wide open Davis who finished the play.
Davis finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds in a gutty second half effort.
After a few solid defensive plays by Davis late in the third, FUMA actually seemed to get away from putting the ball inside to Brown on nearly every possession, which worked well in the first three quarters. Brown’s work in the paint set the table for Jonah Dew to explode with 18 second half and overtime points as he carried the FUMA scoring load in after the break.
“He really did and he hasn’t really played well this season so far,” said FUMA coach Matthew Donohue. “It was a matter of time before he got going and had a good game like that. And it was a good thing, because we needed him.”
Fork Union led nearly the entire way and built the lead to 11 midway through the fourth, on an Xavier Holland bucket that forced STAB to call at a timeout with 4:48 remaining. Everything changed after the timeout though as Murray hit his 3-pointer shortly thereafter and Fork Union struggled to slow down a suddenly red-hot STAB squad.
“We were taking quick shots and shots we really just didn’t need to take,” Donohue said. “It was only one or two passes and then a shot instead of dumping the ball inside.”
FUMA battles Christchurch, a talent-laden squad, today at 4:30 p.m. on the road. STAB gets the weekend off before taking on Woodberry Forest Tuesday at home at 6 p.m.
