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True to Themselves: STAB boys beat Woodberry to advance to Prep League final

Photo by Kristi Ellis

On Friday evening, the STAB Saints defeated the Woodberry Tigers a third time this season by a score of 63-53 in the semifinal round of the Prep League Title tournament.

From the opening tip off, the energy of the crowd was unhinged, but the game started off slow for both squads. Both were locked in on the defensive end. However, slowly but surely, the Saints started to pull away from the Tigers. STAB began feeding the ball to Carter Lang, who dominated Woodberry’s smaller players in the post. The Saints also created a huge rebounding margin between themselves and Woodberry. STAB’s John St. Germain drove the rack constantly and kicked out to shooters, which put a lot of pressure of the Tiger’s defense.

STAB kept clamping down Woodberry defensively, along with their continued offensive success. Junior Carter Lang believes that was a big part of the reason STAB was successful.

“It was all about being true to ourselves,” said Lang. “Sometimes we had to switch everything, I had to stay on the big. It was all about communication, knowing where our guys are, and working through it.”

Carter Lang put up 27 points and 11 rebounds to help lead his team to victory. Lang also got some assistance from John St. Germain who made his presence felt with his nine points, six assists, and four rebounds, and Dyllan Thompson who had nine points and five rebounds.

“The Prep League tournament is always a dog fight,” said STAB coach Damin Altizer. “It’s important, it’s an important tournament. As you can see, they (STAB) came out very, very focused. They were just fighting and scrapping, and it was a battle until the end.”

On the other side of the court, Woodberry was down for the entire second quarter, and all the second half. However, with 44.6 seconds left to go in the game, Woodberry had the ball and an opportunity to cut the game to a one-possession deficit. Although they came up short in the end, Woodberry coach Craig Dawson is proud of the fight and resilience he believes his team showed coming down to the final buzzer.

“It shows them what they’re capable of,” said Dawson. “We keep talking to them about it, and we showed glimpses of it throughout the season, but we got to find a way to put a whole game together. No better time than today to try to do it (to make a comeback), and we almost did. But we’re looking forward to whoever we play Tuesday.”

Woodberry awaits its VISAA Division I playoff fate, while STAB plays in the Prep League title game at home on Saturday.

 

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