Saint Mary's Win 3 for the Week

Phoenix - Saint Mary's showed its depth this past week, as all players available to play pitched in as they won 3 games, including 2 more Skyline Region games, improving to 8-1 on the season. In the first game of the week, Jason Fontenet scored 19 points and grabbed 6 rebounds as the Knights defeated Moon Valley 69-35. The Rockets came out firing on all cylinders and kept pace with the Knights, but a couple of late quarter buckets by Fontenet and Foune Doucoure had the Knights up 23-15 at the end of the first quarter. 

 

From there, the Knights tightened their half court defense and held the Rockets to 14 points the rest of the way, including pitching a shut out in the fourth quarter. "I think that's the first time that I can recall in which we shut out an opponent for an entire quarter," stated head coach Damin Lopez, "I was real proud of our squad and how they sustained the effort defensively." 

 

Doucoure finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds, and Jeremiah Cherry added 10 points and 13 rebounds as each Knight scored at least 2 points.

 

The second game of the week against Mohave saw the Knights start quickly, opening up a 22-2 lead in the first 7 minutes en route to a 25-5 1st Quarter lead. The Knights never looked back and continued to force the pace offensively and beating the Thunderbirds 95-24. The Knights did not play with Jeremiah Cherry who was out with a sprained ankle leaving the Knights with 9 available players that each scored a point against Mohave. Garrison Phelps led the Knights with 17 points, Styles Phipps and Jason Fontenet each added 15, Isaac Mendoza had 13, Seydou Tamboura pitched in 12 and Brendan Lillis finished with 10. It was the first time in over 20 years the Knights had 6 guys posting double figure scoring numbers.

 

The third win came at the hands of the Rockets again, this time by a wider margin, 81-36. Foune Doucoure broke out of his shell scoring 22 pionts and snatching 6 rebounds for the Knights. Keiren Brown showed his old form pitching in 16 points and adding 9 assists and 7 rebounds, Jason Fontenet added 13 and Jacob Estrella finished with 10 for the Knights. The Knights held the Rockets to 11 second half points after posting a 46-25 lead at the half.

 

The Knights return to action this week traveling to Greenway on Tuesday before hosting a preseason favorite Paradise Honors on Thursday. The Knights finish the week traveling to Tucson to take on Catalina Foothills, another preseason favorite in the 5A classification.

 

Next Up:

2/16 - at Greenway 7 p.m., game to be live streamed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gcS_U3eyCHk

2/18 - vs. Paradise Honors 7 p.m., game to be live streamed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vCYlkvhTP2Y

2/20 - at Catalina Foothills 4 p.m., game to be live streamed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8cjWi6scmVY