By Kary Booher
In the postgame celebration, it was clear that Ian Cochran and the Springfield Catholic Fightin’ Irish had a problem. A good problem.
Who would be the lucky one to take home the championship trophy of the Strafford Tournament?
“It’s nice. The last two years I’ve been here, we’ve been third and fifth. It’s nice to come in and take that trophy,” Cochran said after Catholic’s 47-43 victory against the Stafford Indians on Friday night.
Cochran scored a team-high 12 points for Catholic, which won despite blowing an 11-point advantage in the second half and yet made enough hustle plays to eke out the win.
In other words, if Catholic is to be a dark horse in Class 3, it took an important first step. After all, the varsity roster does not carry even one senior on coach Tony Armstrong’s team, which counts four juniors and five sophomores. And here they are, with a three-game win streak since a season-opening loss against Mountain Grove.
Not that anyone was talking about that exactly. It’s a storyline for down the road.
“That might be better for us, than to win an easy one,” Armstrong said. “We had to do some things at the end, and handle some pressure that we’re going to have to do. We didn’t handle it well for about a three-minute span, but Strafford had as much to do with that as us not handling it. But we stepped up at the end.”
Cochran’s inside post moves early in the second half, when he scored eight buckets, enabled the Irish to build a 33-22 lead midway through the third quarter.
Those points proved significant. In time, so did the hustle play of one of the Irish’s sophomores, Charlie O’Reilly.
Strafford showed resilience after it fell behind trailed 33-22 midway through the third quarter. From there, the Indians outscored Catholic 11-4 in a span covering both quarters, with Boswell’s 3-pointer forging a 39-39 tie with about 5 ½ minutes left.
However, O’Reilly emerged to be a nemesis in short order. He hit one of two free throws, followed an Indians turnover with a bucket of his own and then grabbed a steal. The last play led to sophomore Jake Branham’s driving layup with 2:30 left to play and a 44-39 Catholic lead.
“They were making a run on us, and they had the momentum, so I knew I had to do something to get my team fired up,” O’Reilly said. “In games like these, you’ve got to take chances, and that’s what I did.”
For Strafford, the night offered some positives.
For one, while its 3-point shooting was off, the Indians used the threat of its perimeter shooting to create lanes in the second half. That’s how they built a rapid-fire sequence in the third quarter and eventually pulled even.
Strafford’s defense, thought to be a question mark coming into this season, also keyed the rally. For instance, Riley Oberbeck, who finished with 10 points, got a steal off an inbounds to open the fourth quarter and converted a quick three-point play, fueling the rally. Tyler Winburn also finished with 10 points for Strafford, whose defense was off and on in the semifinal against East Newton.
“We stepped up our intensity. We got down 10 points and I’m looking up at the clock, going, ‘Wow, we’ve got problems,’” Strafford coach Mike Wilson said. “But I’m proud of them. We’ve got our hands on basketballs that we hadn’t done for two games.”
Meanwhile, Branham scored nine points and sophomore reserve Michael Manzardo added eight for Catholic, which sealed the win when Branham hit two free throws with 5.7 seconds left. That came after Stafford missed a pair of free throws, including the first one that rimmed in and out of a 45-43 game.
“We’re capable (defensively),” Wilson added. “Our help defense has got to be better. Our on-ball defense and one-pass-away defense was good. But our weakside defense has to get better. When we get that figured out, I know we’ll have a chance.”
Third-Place Game Video: Aurora 42, Marshfield 40 – F/OT
