By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher MANAHAWKIN — Holy Spirit trailed by as many as 10 points in the second quarter to host Southern Regional in the semifinals of the Score at the Shore tournament on Monday night, but stormed back to take the lead early in the fourth quarter. In the end, however, too much Peyton Wejnert and a little bit of inexperience and foul trouble sunk the Spartans. The Rams took a 52-50 lead with 1:10 remaining — after Holy Spirit had finally taken the lead, 42-40, at the 6-minute mark — then held off the Spartans in the final 65 seconds to win 57-54, handing Spirit its first loss of the season. Wejnert, a 6-foot-7 swingman and Pace University commit who finished with a game-high 26 points — including 14 in the second half — scored off a turnover to give Southern Regional (2-2) a 54-50 lead with 1:05 left. Holy Spirit’s Tyler Jones, who led the Spartans (3-1) with 21 points, answered to cut it to 54-52, and the teams went back-and-forth during a manic final minute of play. Jake Dubois scored in transition to put Southern up 56-52 before Spirit’s Dante Daniel answered with a bucket inside, cutting the lead to 56-54 with 12 seconds left. Holy Spirit was forced to foul, and Wejnert hit 1-of-2 from the free-throw line to push the Rams’ lead to 57-54. Jones heaved up a desperation 3-pointer that was off the mark, allowing Southern to advance to Tuesday’s championship game against Bergen Catholic. Holy Spirit will take on St. John Vianney in the third-place game. 
Holy Spirit’s Tyler Jones puts up a shot over Southern Regional’s Peyton Wejnert during the Score at the Shore semifinals on Monday night in Manahawkin. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) “We competed very well tonight. There’s a lot to be proud of with our kids. We’re playing a lot of young kids out there and they never stopped competing the entire night. I’m proud of our effort. We have some areas we need to clean up, but the effort part is not one of them,” said Holy Spirit coach Jamie Gillespie. “We did a good job of attacking the interior of their zone, finding the middle guy and going baseline — what we call low gray — and having guys dive to the basket. We got them staring at the ball a couple times and found the open cutter. There were a lot of good things from our kids tonight.” An inside basket by Daniel, who finished with 16 points, cut Southern’s second-quarter lead to 18-13, but the Rams responded with a jumper by John Keizer and a 3-pointer from Mark Valeriani to push the lead to 10 points, 23-13. “It was hard, I’m not going to lie, but we just had to believe that we could win this game. We couldn’t give up just because they had taken a 10-point lead,” said Daniel, a junior forward. “We had to come together as a team, and we got hungry and started scoring. We just have to have faith in our plays. It doesn’t matter who is shooting, we have faith in all of our guys. I’m proud of my boys tonight, and we’re looking to come out tomorrow and give all the effort we have to leave this tournament with a 4-1 record.” 
Joe Marczyk puts defensive pressure on Southern’s Ethan Dubois during the Rams’ win over the Spartans. Holy Spirit continued to chip away, however, and trailed just 23-19 at halftime after a steal and layup by Reece Miller and a basket in the paint from Jones. The Spartans still trailed by four points entering the fourth quarter, but consecutive baskets by Daniel and Joe Marczyk tied the game at 39. Miller’s 3-pointer moments later gave Holy Spirit a 42-40 lead, and the teams traded baskets throughout much of the final six minutes. “We’re a very good passing team. We pass the ball exceptionally well, and that’s shown in all of our games so far this year. Our strength is not going to be our perimeter shooting, but we can score around the basket and we’re unselfish,” Gillespie said. “I told the kids, look, the biggest positive for me today is the effort and the will to compete. A couple of times tonight we fell behind, we could have tanked it, but they battled all the way back to go up by three. We had some breakdowns defensively and turned the ball over in key spots.” Miller, pressed into service as the Spartans’ point guard as Holy Spirit awaits the return of C.J. Barnes, who is recovering from a knee injury, scored five points and Marczyk and Travis Stoll each added six. Valeriani hit a pair of 3-pointers for Southern Regional and finished with eight points, while Keizer and Dubois combined for 10. Ethan Dubois, a senior guard, added 10 points for the Rams. “I understand that we are a young team, but it’s effort,” Daniel said. “As long as you have effort and dedication, you don’t have to worry about the young part. You have to execute on offense and do the right things on defense.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]
Boys basketball: Southern Regional fights off Holy Spirit, advances to Score at the Shore title game
