Chaminade Takes Down St. John's 60-44

Every game is a war.

At least in CHSAA basketball it is, according to head coach Jim Quin.

Sauntering onto the court at St John the Baptist Thursday night with an undefeated league record and 10-2 overall, the Flyers possessed the aura of battle-tested winners.

Four quarters later, they walked off the court with the same swagger. Once again, Chaminade (5-0 in the CHSAA league) had roughed up an opponent, coming away with a 60-44 victory.

The final score was eerily close to the Flyers’ average this season of 63.5 ppg, versus 49.0 ppg for their opponents.

Leading the way for the Flyers was forward James McCaffrey, who had 21 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals and a block. Center Richard Zoller (11 points) was dominating inside, hauling in 10 rebounds and blocking three shots. Fellow big man inside Christopher Kustera had six points on the evening, and hauled in 8 boards. Also scoring big for Chaminade was John Gallego, who had 10 points, including two 3 pointers.

Dante Thompson-Smallwood led St Johns (1-2, 8-3 overall) with 18 points, followed by William Fortune with 15.

For all the offensive fireworks, it was defense which set up the Flyers’ win, according to coach Quin. “Though we weren’t as good as last Tuesday against Trinity, we tried very hard defensively,” he said.

“Every game is a war in our league. If you’re not ready to do battle, you’re going to get beat.”

The St. John Cougars demonstrated that, using their offensive quickness and athleticism to stay with Chaminade early on. At the end of the first quarter, it was 14-11 for the Flyers and something short of a cakewalk.

As the second quarter progressed, however, and on the strength of some hot shooting from Gallego and Kustera, the Flyers began to pull away, making it a 10 point margin at the half, an advantage that was keyed by quick handed disruption of St Johns’ key players, and an increasing dominance inside by the towering duo of Kustera and Zoller.

“It was a real brawl inside,” the Flyer center said. “But we like that, and with the support of Chris (Kustera), there’s not many teams that can compete with us inside. I think we held our own.”

Meanwhile, McCaffrey, Kevin Sheehy and Matthew Gonyon were harrying the St. John's offense with increasing effectiveness in the second half – so much so that the lead stretched to 16 at the end of a third quarter that saw McCaffrey knock down 7 , and Sheehy nail a trey as well as a sweet jumper from the left side.

“We wanted to step up up our defense, that was how we were successful against Trinity,” McCaffrey said. “And once we were on offense, I just got a lot of jump shots on sets. Tonight I was just the guy that finished the set.”

Though the fourth quarter saw Chaminade stretch its lead out as far as 21 points, to its credit St John the Baptist never said quit. Fortune and Thompson-Smallwood kept up their slashing attack throughout, keeping the game to within 16 for much of the quarter.

“They were a team that didn’t go away,” coach Quin said. “We won -- but they stayed in it.”

Next up for Chaminade is on Feb 1. Game time is 4 pm.