St. Joe's Powers Past Drury in Second Half
PITTSFIELD, Mass — The Drury boys' basketball team did its job on the defensive end. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they couldn't generate enough offense to keep up with a high-powered team from Saint Joseph's, losing 55-44 on the road on Friday night.Jack Racette's squad put up a good fight against the 10-3 Crusaders, taking a 25-20 lead into halftime. St. Joe's came out swinging in the second half, however, using a 14-5 run in the third quarter to earn a four-point lead heading into the fourth. Joe Wiggins scored 14 of his game-high 16 points in the second half, and the Drury offense had too many long scoreless droughts to keep the game close in the fourth quarter.
For the Blue Devils (7-6), the game was eerily similar to their only other loss in the past six games, a 68-43 defeat at Pittsfield. In that game, Drury was down by just one point at halftime but was outscored 45-21 in the second half. On Friday night, the Crusaders outscored the visitors 35-19 after halftime.
"I was happy with the way our defense played," Racette said. "Holding a team like St. Joe's in the 50s is a nice accomplishment. They have six or seven guys that can hurt you, though, and I think we ran out of gas a little bit in the second half once they got out and started running. We missed a few chippys on the offensive end and just had too many long stretches where we were unable to score."
Senior guard Joel Giorgi was the only Devil to score in double figures, finishing with 11 points on the night. Senior center Brett Denning and junior forward Nolan Bird chipped in with eight points apiece for Drury, which next hosts Monument Mountain at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Mike Carpenter added 13 points for the Crusaders.