By MARK MOLINA | STAFF WRITER
The St. Joseph’s College Joeys from Sydney, Australia, played six games over the last couple of weeks and made their final stop in Brownsville to take on the St. Joseph Academy Bloodhounds.
The Bloodhounds came out cold from the field in the first half and trailed by as many as eight in the second, but a 21-6 run during the final quarter and a half, fueled by 10 points from Cesar Garcia, proved to be the difference as they picked up a 46-39 win over the Joeys on Saturday at St. Joseph Academy.
The Bloodhounds had trouble finding the basket early, but strong defense and roster depth would take over as they held the fatigued Joeys to six points over the final 12 minutes of play.
“At halftime, there were some shots that didn’t go in for us and we were only down four points,” Bloodhound head coach Sam Lucio said. “We knew we were going to run on them because we have a longer bench that they did. We knew ever loose and 50-50 ball has to be ours and eventually our shots will start falling.”
The Joeys opened the third quarter by feeding center Petrus Van Jaarsveldt in the paint to take a 33-25 lead, but after the Bloodhounds’ defense began pressuring the ball, the easy buckets stopped and tired legs shifted the visitors into neutral.
“It was the little things (the Bloodhounds) did really well towards the end of the game,” Joeys head coach Adrian Crow said. “Their quickness and their pressure took us out of our stuff. Us on tired legs really counted towards the end and their guards were able to get a lot of offensive rebounds.”
The Bloodhounds improved to 13-8 after starting the season 0-6, while the Joeys finished their U.S. tour with 1-6 mark after playing games in the Dallas and Houston areas before finishing in Brownsville.
Garcia finished with 15 points to lead the Bloodhounds and Kai Money and Carlos Esteve added nine apiece.
Van Jaarsveldt led all scorers with 17 points, all of which came in the paint and at the free throw line and Jack Dillon finished with 14.
For the game, the Joeys made just one 3-pointer, which made Lucio call off the pressure on the perimeter defense and focus on the paint, which is something they’ll need come district.
“We kind of tried to collapse inside and try to make them shoot jumpshots, which they didn’t in the beginning,” Lucio said. “I wanted to lay off them and make them shoot instead of them doing that high-low to us. It’s good for us because we’ll see guys the same size.”
After making just three shots from the field in the first quarter, the Bloodhounds trailed most of the first half. They didn’t take their first lead until the 2:06 mark of the second quarter on a Money layup capped off an 8-0 push to make it 23-21.
The Joeys would answer with small move of their own and go into the half up 27-23 after a three-point play from Dillon.
It would be the start of a 12-2 run before the Bloodhounds took over late.