Sports

Gallego, Ehrhardt Pluck Bayhawks for Flyers' First League Win

Chaminade defeats St. Dominic's 66-64 in nailbiter.

basketball coach Jim Quinn is fond of touting how evenly matched the Catholic basketball league is this year, how there is no favorite; how the prize is up for anyone to grab.

So for a league that’s supposed to be as packed as a can of sardines, tensions – and attitudes – tend to run a little high. Especially on the first game of league play.

“It’s a league game so you want to get a win in the league, it’s our league opener, an away game so the atmosphere is intense the whole game,” Chaminade said about facing St. Dominic’s Tuesday night up in Oyster Bay.

Find out what's happening in Mineolawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Especially when you would rather be the one that starts 1-0 instead of 0-1, when you keep putting up baskets and the opponent nails a jumper from behind the arc, when there’s 16 full minutes of play and there’s still just a point between you. When it comes down to the final 93 seconds of the game tensions tend to run high. You press, you scramble. That’s when mistakes happen.

The Bayhawks had given Gallego enough gripe through the first half as the senior missed shots and had another thoroughly slapped away mid-air.

Find out what's happening in Mineolawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“They did a good job of taking away some of my shots but then I just worked the ball around, got my teammates involved and then when the shots were there, I took them,” he said.

The Chaminade point guard had made it equally troublesome for St. Dominic’s in the second half, keeping the Flyers breathing down the Bayhawk’s feathers, nailing a pair of threes that tied the game at 28 and 42 in the second and third period, respectively in the see-saw battle.

“It was nerve wracking,” Chaminade forward Brian Ehrhardt said of the game. “On offense, just get the ball to Johnny and let him push it up,” Ehrhardt said. “He finds us on the wings. Johnny likes the pressure. I like the pressure too.”

That pressure came when the Flyer junior had gotten a long pass from down in the Bay Hawks’ court, racing so fast that he slid into the blue-walled padding out of bounds after putting the ball up for two.

“J-Patt kept his head up at half court, kept his head up and fouled me,” Ehrhardt said of teammate Jon Patterson. “(It was) a lot of pressure, loud, the fans were going crazy. I just got the ball, stepped up and made some shots.”

One of those shots had tied the game at 51 in the third and before that Ehrhardt had turned a completed freethrow from forward Jack Carrigan into a 3 point play getting the rebound.

“We went through a couple zones throughout the game, they weren’t really working,” Ehrhardt said. “Their shooters were making shots, so we went to zone and everyone on the team tried shutting down their men, it worked out.”

1 2 3 4 F Chaminade High School 15 17 22 12 66 St. Dominic 18 15 19 12 64

 

Chaminade Scoring Statistics Player Position FGs 3PTs FTs Points Assts Rebs Patrick Farrell Forward 4 2 3 17 1 5 Brian Ehrhardt Guard 2 4 0 16 5 2 Jon Patterson Forward 7 0 1 15 3 8 John Gallego Guard 1 3 3 14 7 4 Jack Carrigan Forward 1 0 0 2 0 6 Mike Walsh Forward 1 0 0 2 1 1 Justin Winkler Forward 0 0 0 0 0 2


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here