(BOYS) Holy Cross Crusaders Take Off on Seycove Seyhawks for Convincing Win
Seycove v. Holy Cross
December 10, Round 2
Written by Scott Leigh, Handsworth Grad ‘06
In the late game, with a 7pm start time - we found ourselves back in Carson Graham’s gym for a matchup between the Seycove Seyhawks and the Holy Cross Crusaders. The Crusaders are coming off an incredibly entertaining first round game, in which they fell to the Belmont Bulldogs; whereas the Seyhawks are coming off a tough loss to the Handsworth Royals which they have already mentally moved on from.
The vibe in this gym was incredible – Coach Brad Thornhill does not mess around when it comes to setting the mood on a Friday evening; straight 80s and 90s hip hop tracks to get the fellas fired up.
The Crusaders started this game off like they ended the last, high intensity defense with a goal of making things uncomfortable for their opponents. Seycove seemed to have the same game plan - both teams have come out in a full court press. On top of the press, Seycove was looking to test the Crusaders early season half court sets by dropping back into a zone D. What was clear in the early part of this game was that the Seyhawks were going to have to find a way to break through the full court press from Holy Cross and find opportunities to make them pay on the other end with easy buckets. So far, the Crusaders have forced the Seyhawks into a handful of turnovers through their pressure. A bit of back and forth to start this game kept it close, but the Crusaders crept ahead to a 6-point lead halfway through the Q. Seycove’s twin towers, #12 and #15, were racking up the rebounds and tied the game up at 12 with under 3 to play in the quarter. A nice give and go between the big men gave the Seyhawks a one point lead heading into the second quarter.
End of First Quarter Score: Seycove 16: Holy Cross 15
The Crusaders worked the ball around offensively to combat the zone D they were facing, and got themselves open looks. #6 Roque, started the second quarter with a make from deep - they are going to have to find some consistency from range in order to force the Seyhawks hand towards a change in defense. Seycove continued to pack the key and force the Crusaders into shots from deep - it kept them within reach of their opponents. Holy Cross was looking to counter all of this, simply by knocking down shots from three. Back-to-back 3s pushed the Crusaders lead to 9 with 3 minutes to go in the half. #1 for the Seyhawks nails the buzzer beater from deep to pull his team back into single digits of the Crusaders heading into the half.
Halftime Score: Holy Cross 35: Seycove 26
Halftime Fact: There is actually no such thing as a seahawk (or a seyhawk) - the type of bird being referred to when that term is used is an osprey, but I suppose that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
Bonus Halftime Fact: Ospreys live on every continent besides Antarctica and the osprey species is at least 11 millions years old!
Let’s quickly talk about the Crusaders’ jerseys - the black primary with the red trim, but most importantly the players names on the back?! Impressive.
Holy Cross started the second half with some unselfish ball movement to find the open man, but still struggled to consistently connect from range. You can’t control your shooting percentage every game, but you can control your effort - that is something that the Crusaders have been consistent with the entire game. The teams were exchanging buckets for the most part in the third quarter - keeping the Crusaders’ lead to around 10. #12 for the Seyhawks knocked down the three while getting fouled, but couldn’t complete the rarely seen 4-point play as the free throw rattled off the back of the rim. As the third quarter came to a close, the Crusaders found a way to increase their halftime lead by a few points, up to 15.
End of Third Quarter Score: Holy Cross 53: Seycove 38
Holy Cross came out firing to start the final quarter - it seemed inevitable that the open shots were eventually going to fall and it felt that way at the beginning of the fourth. They quickly ran up their total by 15 points a few minutes into the Q, and have done most of the damage with the three ball. Both of these teams have worked their tails off this evening - no shortage of effort and intensity from the competitors on the court tonight. In the end the contribution from the entire Crusaders’ team was too much to handle for the Seyhawks. Endless pressure on D and taking advantage of their easy scoring opportunities when it mattered eventually put this out of reach. At Seycove they believe in C.L.A.S.S. (Consideration, Leadership, Achievement, Sportsmanship and Scholarship), and they certainly showed that tonight. Great effort by both squads.
Final Score: Holy Cross 80: Seycove 43
No Regrets.