By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher BUENA VISTA TWP. — If anybody had any doubts about who the team to beat in the Cape-Atlantic League is, St. Augustine Prep erased them on Wednesday night with a thoroughly convincing 71-46 win over visiting Holy Spirit. The Spartans got to within five, 21-16, midway through the second quarter when C.J. Barnes fed Travis Stoll for a fast-break layup off a steal. Hermits coach Paul Rodio quickly called a timeout, and St. Augustine went on a 9-0 run to take a commanding 30-16 lead. A 15-0 run to start the second half blew the game wide open as St. Augustine improved to a perfect 12-0. “Every halftime, coach tells us it’s a 6-0 run for us, or it’s a 6-0 run for them and they are back in the game. We knew we had to speed the tempo up,” said Hermits senior guard Sa’eed Nelson, who scored a team-high 17 points. “In the second quarter, they kind of slowed us down. We only scored 12 points in the second quarter, which is not what we do. He told us to have fun, ultimately, but also to go on a run. Tempo is our game. We went on that 15-0 run and that was basically the game right there.” 
St. Augustine Prep guard Sa’eed Nelson draws a crowd as he tries to go up for a layup during the first half of the Hermits’ 71-46 win over Holy Spirit on Wednesday night. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) “It’s a rivalry for us. I think our changing defenses kept them off balance a little bit and forced them into a tempo they didn’t want to have against us, and we got our tempo going,” Rodio said. “We had that 15-0 run to start the third quarter, and we have a tendency to do that to people. That’s what really did it in.” Sophomore Marlon Hargis scored five points — on a runner in the lane and then a 3-pointer — to highlight St. Augustine’s 9-0 second-quarter run. Walter Harvey finished off the run by throwing down a dunk off a steal to push the Hermits’ lead to 30-16. Harvey and Hargis each scored eight points. “He’s young, and like a young kid on a good team, he’s trying to find his way,” Rodio said of Hargis. “But he’s gotten better and better every game. He’s starting to come around. If he can score like we think he can, that makes us that much more difficult to play because there are a lot of weapons that we have, and luckily tonight we were able to utilize him.” 
Holy Spirit’s Travis Stoll drives in for two of his 12 points against St. Augustine. Holy Spirit (9-4) hung around through the first 12 minutes or so on the strength of Tyler Jones’ offense and the ability of Dante Daniel to play tough defense on St. Augustine 6-foot-7 junior forward Justyn Mutts. Daniel limited Mutts to just six first-half points, while Jones countered with eight in the first half and finished with a game-high 21 points. “We just told him (at halftime) to keep his head up and keep playing. Nobody wants to jump with somebody who has the ability to dunk on them, so when he plays with that kind of aggressiveness, there’s just nothing you can do,” Nelson said of Mutts. “We just told him to keep playing and keep that motor running. He’s one of our top guys.” “(Mutts) started moving around a little bit more without the basketball, and we did a better job of getting him the ball in the second half. We made a conscious effort to run more plays for him and open up the floor to make things happen,” Rodio said. Austin Kennedy came to life in the second half for St. Augustine, scoring 10 of his 13 points while picking up a handful of steals as well. “Austin Kennedy, he had a couple of threes, he was hitting everything,” Nelson said. “That was good, because I didn’t have a great shooting night.” Nelson did have an off night shooting the ball, but still managed to hit five field goals, including a 3-pointer, while going 6-for-7 from the free-throw line. “12-0 is a good start. We’re a top-three seed in the playoff bracket right now, but we want to keep winning to get the No. 1 seed and home-court advantage,” Nelson said. “I think coach Rodio is having some fun. It’s always a good thing to see a smile on coach’s face. It’s fun to play with these guys, and to be winning with these guys. I’m the only senior on the team, so it’s fun.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan; sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]
Boys basketball: St. Augustine proves why it is best team in CAL with convincing win over Holy Spirit
