St. Augustine Prep 85, Sacred Heart 70

Prep sizes up win over Heart

Hermits take advantage of Walker’s absenceBy TOM GANTERT, Staff Writer

VINELAND – It was not a good night for Sacred Heart High School’s Charles Walker to miss.Sidelined with a severely sprained ankle, the 6-foot-5 Walker and his teammates were outsized by St. Augustine as the Prep jumped to an early lead and held on to win, 85-70, Saturday in a Cape-Atlantic League National Division game.The game was played before a standing-room-only crowd of about 600 fans. St. Augustine, 8-2, used a 16-0 spurt midway through the first half to take a 25-9 lead. Sacred Heart, 6-4, twice closed the deficit to eight points in the final quarter, but could get no closer.The Hermits’ front line of 6-foot-6 Raheem Rex (16 points, 9 rebounds) and 6-foot-7 Bill Fahber (12 points, 14 rebounds) combined to hold off Sacred Heart. St. Augustine had a 47-29 rebounding advantage.“Our game plan was to fun the ball and get the ball inside because we thought we had superior size,” said St. Augustine coach Paul Rodio.Sacred Heart struggled early and paid for it. The Lions made only 5-of-26 shots from the field in the first half. During the Hermits’ 16-0 run, the Lions went 0-11 over a span of six minutes, 22 seconds.“I thought it was a great defensive first half by us,” Rodio said. “The defensive pressure might have been the best all year for us in the first half.”Sacred Heart fared little better from the free-throw line, where the Lions made 11-of-18 free throws in the first half.“We knew without Walker we would have to shoot the ball to stay in the game,” said Sacred Heart coach Jim Mogan. “Shooting 5-for-26 and missing seven foul shots took us out of the game.”What put Sacred Heart back into the game was its superior ball handling and the second-half scoring of David Ripley. The Lions forced 14 turnovers while committing three and Ripley scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half.Brad Walinksi made a free throw with 4:20 left in the game to bring Sacred Heart within eight, 66-58, and Anthony Toner, who drew Rex’s fifth foul, soon followed with two more free throws to make it 68-60 with 3:58 left.But St. Augustine answered with consecutive three-point plays by Matt Hufty and Matt Miles to put the Prep up by 14, 74-60 with 3:30 left.

C.A. National Basketball archive – S.A. 1992