FREDERICK, Md. – It took a 109-108 overtime affair to take down the No. 22 Catholic Cardinals and for the Blazers to lift up the Rotary Club of Frederick Tip-Off Tournament trophy once again on Saturday afternoon in Woodsboro Bank Arena.
Inside the Box Score
Jevon Yarbrough (Hagerstown, Md./Williamsport) dropped a career-high 32 points to lead the team on the evening.
Kullen Robinson (Alexandria, Va./Alexandria City) scored 25 and found his way to a double-double with 10 rebounds and add two blocks.
Jude Huseby (Frederick, Md./Urbana) big bodied a team high 14 rebounds and 13 points.
How it Happened
The Blazers continued their paint play early on both ends driving to the bucket hard with attempts by Mallory and Huseby falling accompanied by a Robinson block as the shot clock wound down to complement on the defensive end.
The Cardinals swapped some starters with bigger bodies and created the disruption they were looking for a tip in layup by Charley Hepting and some heavy screens by Jamie Ntiamoah opened up the visiting play.
Some turnovers for a squad putting some new faces into the starting five and Catholic had their first leaf of the game at 41-40 inside the two-minute mark. The Blazers got it back after the replay review.
The No. 22 team in the country was ready to combat the trap game elements by hitting back-to-back-to-back triples to start the second half to see if they could take control of the game and run.
The response was simple- continue the pace in the paint and outrun the opposition. With continued success in the lane and 18 foul shots made the Blazers hung on tight.
The core Brian Herbert, CJ Ruoff and a second-half Peter Gellene of Catholic contributing 83 of the team's points to keep the match a punch-for-punch affair.
A late appearance from Alex Welch had a pair of three's drop and in the following sequence jump a pass at the top of the key and took it coast to coast to the rack for a dunk and a 84-75 lead for the visiting squad looked to steer the game out of reach.
After some work chipping away, the Blazers found themselves with a one-point deficit with less than a minute to go in regulation on a Catholic inbound underneath their own basket. Yarbrough stepped in front of a pass and tipped in a layup at point blank and the script flipped.
Even after the hard to the bucket mentality for regulation, the Blazers had fresh enough legs to continue and pulled away with seven points from Robinson in the period and the Blazers upset another Top 25 team in this opening tournament.
Analysis
Catholic shot 18-58 from three on the day.
Hood went 23-for-27 from the foul line.
Up Next
The squad is headed to Westminster for the Battle of D.C & Maryland hosted by McDaniel where their first game will be against Ramapo on Saturday, November 5 with tip-off set for 2:15 p.m..
