Benilde St. Margaret's at DeLaSalle Observations

Games #100 and 101 take me and the basketblogger to DeLaSalle for a couple of big showdowns with BSM. In the girls game, Aaryn Booker has a big night with 27 points and 13 rebounds which included 7 clutch points late in the game to lead the #1 Islanders to a 58-50 win. Interesting thing was that this game was played with the 35 second shot clock which is the 1st shot clock game I've seen all year. Only 1 shot clock violation and only 2-3 other times where it came into play. The DLS pep band is terrific and gets my vote for best pep band I've seen so far this season. The place is absolutely packed and even Tubby Smith is in attendance.

To the boys game, Royce White picks up his 2nd foul at 13:33 of the 1st half bumping Peter Crawford inside and doesn't return until the 2nd half. When he leaves its 7-2 BSM and White has the only 2 DLS points. AJ Barker gets 5 in a row to give DLS a 12-11 lead with 9:20 to go in the half. Its 18 all with 5 minutes to go in the half and star soph Bryce Hawkins for DLS gets his 3rd foul at 4:30 to go in the half. BSM goes to some 1-3-1 zone and its still 22-19 with about 2:30 to go in the half. But Jordan Taylor and Matt Thomas hit back to back 3s and Taylor adds a bucket with 50 seconds to go in the half. Its a 12-3 run over the last 5 minutes (8-2 in last 2:30) without White and Hawkins and BSM goes to the locker room up 30-21. Peter Crawford guarding Bryce Hawkins in a matchup of really good sophomores and Armond Battle was assigned the task of guarding White. But Jalen Jaspers guarded Battle on the other end.

White comes back out for the 2nd half and is absolutely on fire. He gets 2 buckets and then hits a totally sick stepback fadeaway to make it 30-27 BSM with 14:39 to go (6-0 Royce run). Its 32-28 with 14 minutes left when Spencer Bata hits a 3. Matt Thomas counters another Royce bucket with a 3 and its 37-30 BSM outside 12 minutes left. Spencer Bata hits 2 straight 3s to make it 46-31 with 9:58 to play, timeout DLS. White has all 10 DLS points in the half, but he gets a technical during the timeout and he's done for the night. I don't know if he got ejected or if it was a coaching decision to not put him back in the game. Taylor hits the 2 technical FTs, Bata gets 2 more and Battle gets a 2 to make it 52-31 with 8:35 to go. Jalen Jaspers gets a bucket before another Bata 3 makes it 55-33 with 8 minutes left. Its a 25-6 BSM spurt over almost 7 minutes. But DLS doesn't quit, as they get as close as 62-54 to 53.6 to play. But the lead was too much and BSM gets a 65-54 win.

Royce White with 12 points in only 12:29 of playing time and was amazing. Jeremy Randle leads DLS with 14. AJ Barker with only 6 and 5 of those were in a 1st half spurt. I'd like to see him get more offense to take some of the load off of Royce. DLS falls to 7-10 with the loss. Jordan Taylor with 20 to lead BSM. Armond Battle with only 13 as Jalen Jaspers did a nice job defending him. Peter Crawford with a nice game of 11 points and Spencer Bata comes up big with 14 points and 4 3s. Stu Neville was in warmups and no longer needs the walking boot. Looks like he's close to returning and will likely be fully ready for the Cooper rematch on Feb 29th.