Opening Night of League on the Road at Archbishop Mitty

The WCAL lives up to it's hype.  While we at Bellarmine were picked to battle for the bottom of the WCAL standings and came in to league play at 7-4, this week we took Mitty who is beating top teams throughout the country to OT and then beat the previous undefeated Irish of Sacred Heart Cathedral.

We game planned for controlling Aaron Gordon as best as we could all week and I was so excited to play such a tough opponent.  Then at the beginning of the game, we learn that he has mono and won't play.  As much as you have to be relieved that a guy who is being recruited by all the big programs in the country and is listed as one of the top recruits in the country is not going to play, it was actually a big disappointment.  Aaron is an amazing player and I wanted him to play and I wanted to beat Mitty with Gordon.

Well we all came out really flat against the Gordonless Monarchs and the game was a see-saw battle of missed shots, low intensity and bad basketball.  Then I guess Coach Kennedy early in the 3rd quarter thought they were going to lose this ugly game unless they brought in Aaron.  Aaron though obviously ill was still really good.  He put up 18 on us and all of them were from right around the basket.

The good thing was that his entrance in the game also woke us up.  We significantly elevated our game once he got off the bench.

Me trying to stop the lob pass into Aaron in the post

Getting a steal in the last minute of the 4th quarter

Ultimately we could not close out the game and lost in overtime.  We let the chance to beat a nationally ranked team in the league opener on their home court slip away.  In searching for the silver lining, we saw what our team is capable of together and that we can play with anybody.

The team during the National Anthem

Great atmosphere at Mitty with our Bellarmine faithful filling the upper rafters of their gym in full patriotic military gear.

The Bellarmine fans marched into the gym, climbed the stairs, low crawled tactically to their seats and supported us amazingly.

They out numbered the Mitty fans in their own building and definitely had much more spirit.  I am sorry we let them down in that OT period.

Tuesday's Box Score vs Mitty:

Archbishop Mitty 52, Bellarmine College Prep 45 (OT)

Bellarmine        5"‚10"‚ 9"‚16"‚ 5--45
Archbishop Mitty  6"‚ 8"‚10"‚16"‚12--52

Bellarmine College Prep (7-3, 0-1) -- Vermeer 6-5-20, Goudreau 5-2-14, Fordyce 2-0-4, Olugbode 0-1-1, O'Hara 3-0-6. Totals 16-8-45.

Archbishop Mitty (9-1, 1-0) -- Vranicar 2-2-6, Biebel 3-3-11, Peterson 1-2-4, White 0-1-1, Abajelo 1-0-3, Farrell 1-0-2, Peters 3-0-7, Gordon 8-2-18. Totals 19-10-52.

Three-point goals -- Vermeer 3, Goudreau 2; Biebel 2, Abajelo, Peters.