Brother Rice coach Rick Harrigan wants to see that killer instinct. To finish a team off when they’re down.
So when his Crusaders raced out to an impressive 46-22 halftime lead Friday against visiting De La Salle, he challenged his team.
Attack, attack, attack.
“If you want to be consistent and win over and over in this league, you’ve got to have a little mean streak,” Harrigan said. “We’re trying to develop that. I didn’t want us to get on our heels because we knew they’d come at us. I wanted us to keep going and be aggressive.”
At times the pace was helter-skelter. At times it was downright ugly as a 26-point second half lead dwindled to 12. But on this night, a young Brother Rice squad came through when it needed to most, pulling off an impressive 85-72 win on its home court on Senior Night.
The relative upset came courtesy of a team effort, Mike Shepski leading with 20 points, including a 4-for-6 effort from three. Josh Niego (17 points), Joe Ruzevich (13), Jake Kosakowski (11), Jack Mahay (11) and Kevin Badali (10) all chipped in for Rice (9-14,-7) in the Catholic League South win.
Karl Harris had a huge 34 points for De La Salle (11-9, 6-4) with Brandon Hutton adding 13 points and George Willborn 12.
After watching that gigantic halftime lead dwindle away, Niego converted 10-for-13 free throws in the fourth quarter alone to help squash the comeback effort.
“Hit the free throws and win the game,” Niego said. “We trust each other to make those plays.”
The sophomore guard also converted on a pretty inbounds play, catching a beauty of a baseball pass from Badali for an easy score, that helped right the ship in the fourth and extended the lead to 14 at 68-54 with five-plus minutes remaining.
Rice held a lead as big as 58-31 in the third and saw it shrink as low as 11 in the fourth.
“(With a lead) we dropped back against Leo and lost,” Niego said. “That’s in the back of our minds so we had to stick together. We knew they would make a run so we had to make a run back at them.”
The second-half cushion came following a fast-paced first half that saw the Crusaders shoot a sizzling 17-for-25 from the field.
Shepski scored 11 points in the second quarter, including three 3-pointers.
“We felt like we were due for an upset,” Shepski said. “We knew we had a half like that in us all season. We’re constantly working trying to be better. It was a great first half, and one we want to replicate the next time we play.”
Playing catch-up in the second half, De La Salle struggled from distance, finishing 5-for-23 from three-point. The Meteors also committed six turnovers in the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t want to play the clock, and we wanted to score,” Harrigan said. “We didn’t want to play not to lose. We’ve lost some games, some close ones, but we haven’t gotten discouraged.”
Tim O’Brien is a freelance writer.
