BOYS HOOPS: McAuley Catholic suffers home loss to Verona

The McAuley Catholic Warriors kicked off Friday night against the Verona Wildcats in what would be an entertaining back and forth game.
In the end, Verona left town with a 48-41 win.
Verona got off to a quick start with a 6-2 run, but the Warriors promptly responded by going on a 9-3 run of their own thanks to baskets from senior Daniel Wagner and junior Jeffrey Horinek.
Senior Thomas Black would go 2-for-3 from the free throw line to start off his night. Black would finish the evening as the Warriors leading scorer with 16 points. The Warriors led 11-9 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second, Black rattled off two field goals and went 2-of-3 at the line as part of a 9-3 run by the Warriors to kick off the quarter. The run included an impressive sequence where the Warriors scored seven points off a three from freshman Rocco Bazzano-Joseph and then had back-to-back inbound steals all in a matter of seconds.
However, Verona battled back going on a 7-0 run of their own to even the score at 20-20 going into the half.
Coming out of the half neither team could establish a streak, as each team traded baskets for the entire third quarter. Black had three field goals, senior Matthew Dohmen scored his first basket, and Horinek also scored. Bazzano-Joseph went 1-for-2 from the line as the Warriors sported a 31-30 lead over the Wildcats heading into the final period. Black got into foul trouble early in the third which had a drastic impact on the Warriors’ play as the game progressed.
As the fourth quarter got underway the Wildcats got hot and knocked down several baskets including two 3-pointers to take the lead.
Dohmen kept the Warriors in it with three baskets of his own, finishing the night with eight points. Black didn’t foul out, but only scored a single basket while playing with four fouls. With 30 seconds remaining and down by just six, sophomore Joe Staton made a clutch 3 to give the Warriors hope, but after a series of fouls, the Wildcats eventually won 48-41.
“We were wanting to play fast, and we thought maybe we could get them out of control, which we did in spurts, but we just didn’t play fast enough,” said McAuley coach Tony Witt. “We lost our leading scorer and team leader (Black) early in the second half and he doesn’t play. When you take away 17 points per game, it’s hard to overcome. I’m proud of our guys, we just came up a little bit short.”