LANDSDALE, PA- It was a close match-up during Sunday’s home game for the Lansdale Catholic Crusaders boys’ varsity basketball team as they faced the Cardinal O’Hara Lions. In fact, it came down to the final seconds to name a winner.
Lansdale Catholic’s Dan Modestine and Cardinal O’Hara’s Zakee Griffin were both big standouts on offense and defense for their teams.
The Crusaders (2-13, 0-6) quickly caught up to the Lions (5-11, 1-6) in the first period where Cardinal O’Hara snagged the first two baskets of the game after the jump.
Senior Modestine put up the next three back-to-back shots, giving the Crusaders the lead and the only eight points on the scoreboard.
Ryan Brown contributed two foul shots in the first period for the Crusaders giving them 10 points total.
For Cardinal O’Hara, Griffin dropped five points and Chris Johnson landed two nice foul shots giving the Lions their seven points to end the first period.
Lansdale Catholic led the Lions 10-7 heading into the second period.
But, Cardinal O’Hara took the second period to outscore the Crusaders and head into the locker room at the half with a two-point lead.
Cardinal O’Hara’s offense stepped up and Griffin and Jaye’Lyn Peebles both had five points. Johnson added another three and Martin Osayi put up two points in the second period.
The Crusaders’ fiery defense pushed up and down the court. Ty Grant put four points on the board, along with Brown throwing up a solid three-pointer. Mike Ottomano added two points for Lansdale Catholic and Modestine put up a point to close the half.
With a 22-20 lead heading into the third period, Dan Jalosinski nailed two three-pointers for the Crusaders along with another three-pointer by Brown. Modestine and Starky Gabel each contributed two points giving Lansdale Catholic 33 points.
But, a fierce Cardinal O’Hara offense was able to match Lansdale Catholic adding another 11 points to their score making it tied 33-33 all.
Griffin put up another 5 points for the Lions. Lou Repsys added four points and Peebles gave them two.
Both teams headed into the fourth and final period of the game with one thing on their mind- winning.
Many fouls and substitutions in the fourth period allowed Cardinal O’Hara’s Johnson to put up 6 points for the Lions, two of them being foul shots. Repsys pushed the score up another notch with two more foul shots.
Unfortunately for the Crusaders, they were only able to add four more points to the scoreboard, two by Modestine and two by Brown. A few last second shots were unsuccessful leaving their score at 37 as the buzzer rang.
Cardinal O’Hara defeated Lansdale Catholic 41-37 giving them their first Catholic League win of the season.
Cardinal O’Hara
Zakee Griffin: 15 points
Chris Johnson: 11 points
Jaye’Lyn Peebles: 7 points
Lou Repsys: 6 points
Martin Osayi: 2 points
Lansdale Catholic
Dan Modestine: 13 points
Ryan Brown: 10 points
Danny Jalonski: 6 points
Ty Grant: 4 points
Starky Gabel: 2 points
Mike Ottomoto: 2 points