Boys Basketball: St Ignatius imposes will on Farragut

Updated: January 15, 2012 9:51PM

On any given day Farragut can score 14 points in less than a minute. St. Ignatius’ ball-control style and tough defense held them to that amount in a half as the Wolfpack saved the day for the Catholic League with a 54-37 victory Sunday at Whitney Young in the MLK Dream Classic.

The Wolfpack’s style of play appeared to fluster the Admirals as they committed turnovers and took some ill-advised shots that allowed St. Ignatius to take a 21-14 halftime lead.

The Wolfpack (13-2) then held the Admirals to five points in the third quarter while building a 33-19 lead going into the final period. The closest Farragut (7-7) could get the remainder of the game was 44-35 with 1:26 remaining on a three-point play by Deonte Terrell.

“Defense was the key,’’ St. Ignatius coach Rich Kehoe said. ‘‘We got a look at them a couple of times and that helped us, and our goal was to keep them out of scoring in transition.”

Kehoe also credited 6-foot-4 forward Marty McClure for doing a great job on Farragut’s leading scorer, 6-7 Rashaun Stimage, who was held to four points — 19 below his average.

McClure deflated some of the praise his coach gave him to some of his teammates. “They’re a very good team and [Stimage] is a great player,’’ McClure said. ‘‘I was guarding him but I got a lot of help. Our plan was to double down on him whenever he touched it and make him work for everything. We just wanted to play our game, control temple and not let them get up and down the floor the way they like to.”

Brian Howard led the Wolfpack with a game-high 21 points, and McClure finished with 12. Farragut was led in scoring by Lavelle Boyd with 15 points, and Deonte Terrell with 11.

Farragut coach William Nelson was disappointed with his team's performance. “That is not typical of that way we’ve been playing,’’ Nelson said. ‘‘We lost our composure and never got into the game. We did a lot to beat ourselves today.”

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