Benilde St. Margaret's holds off Holy Angels

I've been convinced that the BSM student section is the best I've seen all year. Being able to chant Richard Simmons at a kid is hilarious and there's nothing finer than a student section dressed in pajamas with 1 kid wearing a bathrobe and a badger hat (as in his head is in the mouth of the badger not a Wisconsin Badger baseball cap). Funniest moment of the night comes when aforementioned bathrobed student does the zombie dance when Thriller is playing on the PA. If you know the video, you'll know what I mean. Fantastic!

As to a student section not of the same standard, the AHA students started chanting "This game's over" when AHA got their 1st lead at 6-4. BSM promptly went on a 9-0 run.

John Hedstrom is the building scouting for the big game 2 weeks from tonight. And it wouldn't be a noteworthy game if Rene Pulley isn't in attendance.

As to the game itself, AHA hangs tough. A Stoddard Barnhill layup at the 1st half buzzer gives AHA a 29-27 lead going to the locker room. Taylor and Battle with 23 of BSM's 27 points and no outside shots are falling. Taylor's points are all layups. Barnhill is matching Taylor point for point. Sahr Ngekia is dominating inside for AHA but is 0-5 from the line (prompting a Shaq chant from the BSM students). He's making Shaq look like Rick Barry. BSM has no answers for AHA's swing offense.

In the 2nd half, AHA comes out hot with a couple of quick buckets by James Pfitzinger and takes a 42-35 lead with 14 minutes left. BSM then uses their run and jump pressure to generate 2 steals and 7 quick points (Battle 3 pt play and a Taylor layup) to tie the game at 42 with 11:55 left. We go back and forth to be tied at 60 with 4 minutes left.

BSM runs off 5 in a row thanks to Jordan Taylor and is starting to spread the floor to take advantage of their quickness. With 1 minute left, AHA gets a great steal and layup to pull to 65-64. After BSM kills the clock, Matt Thomas misses 2 FTs with 26 seconds left but on the ensuing possession AHA turns it over with 10 seconds left. Jordan Taylor gets the inbounds and sinks 1 of 2 with 8 seconds left. Barnhill has an OK look at what might have been a 3, it misses and AHA has 2 chances to rebound it but can't tip it in and the Red Knights hang on 66-64.

Jordan Taylor scores BSM's last 6 points in the final 4 minutes. He finishes with 28. Armond Battle has a nice night as well with 21. He also did a terrific job defending James Pfitzinger in the post with Stu Neville again sitting out with an ankle injury. Stoddard Barnhill has a big night for the Stars finishing with 20 points. What an effort by Holy Angels.