Patrick Robinson fuels Conwell-Egan Catholic win over Academy of New Church
BRYN ATHYN – Conwell-Egan Catholic senior Patrick Robinson registered six field goals in the first half, only to score seven after the intermission on his way to a 31-point performance Wednesday evening (Jan. 17) at Friends League rival Academy of the New Church.
When Robinson wasn’t scoring, he was busy drawing multiple defenders, enough to get his teammates free for open baskets.
“If he’s open, we’ll give it to him; everyone shares the ball here,” stated junior Joe Baldachino.
“He’ll kick it out to us when he controls the defenders.
“When he’s open, we’ll give it to him and when we’re open, he gives it to us.”
It was a quiet 31 points, added senior Eric Esposito.
“He was just scoring the ball like usual, so I really didn’t notice he had that many points.”
“We’ve been going over things in practice; we’ve been stressing certain plays to try to look for him in the post.
“He has such a big body type for a point guard; he’s really effective when he gets down low.”
For his part, Esposito, in addition to controlling the boards, tallied 15 points. He had help from Baldachino, who added 10 and Terrance Jones Jr., who chipped in with nine and Delroy Gayle, who scored seven.
“Everybody can score the ball when we get it going,” said Esposito.
“That’s the good part about our team; once the offense gets going, it really feeds into everybody.”
Despite the double-digit win, the Eagles’ offense took some time to get going in this one.
Leading 14-11 after one period, the Lions took a 1-point edge a minute and half into the second quarter on baskets by sophomores Isaac Marshall (17 pts.) and Glenn Sabb (23 pts.). While a Robinson layup and a pair of free throws by Jones put Egan back out in front, buckets by ANC junior Bradley Robinson and Marshall put the Lions back on top 20-18 midway through the second period.
With three minutes left in the first half, a 3-point play by Gayle put the Eagles up 21-20 and they never trailed again. Robinson sandwiched a pair of 3-point plays around a layup and Gayle hit another shot from the floor, helping Egan into the locker room with a 31-24 edge.
Coming back from the break, Egan opened with a putback by Esposito, a 3-point play by Robinson and a driving layup by Gayle to widen the gap to double digits at 38-27 with 5:30 still to play in the third quarter.
Jones, Esposito and Baldachino each followed with 3-pointers and now, the Eagles were on top, 51-35 with 1:21 left in the third period. Egan closed the quarter out with an Esposito basket and a putback by Robinson to take a 55-37 lead into the final frame.
Sabb scored the first three baskets in the fourth quarter, expanding his personal scoring run to 8-2 on a dunk off one of numerous Eagle turnovers in the fourth quarter.
“They threw a press at us and we were slow or lazy to it,” explained Esposito. “We got a little too comfortable with that 20-point lead; we haven’t had a lot of 20-point leads and I guess we didn’t know how to work with it.”
While Glenn expanded his fourth-quarter run to 12-4 at one point, Robinson quieted the home team’s rally with three straight field goals.
“Nobody can stay in front of Patrick one-on-one,” stated Esposito. “When people collapse on him, he kicks it out or dishes it over to us.
“If they go one-on-one with him, we’ll score on the second chance and we know that.”
Baldachino also staged a personal rally of his own in the fourth quarter, exploding for seven of his 10 points in the final frame. CEC senior Noah Andress canned his own putback and Baldachino followed with a 3-point play, putting Egan back on top by 20 points, at 72-52 with 2:15 remaining in regulation.
The Eagles closed the game out with buckets by Robinson and Baldachino. Joe fed Patrick on his inside layup and Patrick fed Joe on a fastbreak basket.
Conwell-Egan 78, Academy of New Church 61
(Jan. 17 at ANC)
Conwell-Egan 14 17 24 23 – 78
Academy of New Church 11 13 13 24 – 61
Conwell-Egan (4-7, 0-5: PCL) — Eric Esposito 15, Patrick Robinson 31, Terrance Jones Jr. 9, Avante Williams 4, Delroy Gayle 7, Joe Baldachino 10, Noah Andress 2; TOTALS — 31 13-17–78.
Academy of New Church (4-10, 2-2: FL) — Glenn Sabb 23, Bradley Robinson 2, Isaac Marshall 17, Eric Kenny 3, Josh Haddock 2, Devin Bryant 14; TOTALS — 25 8-17–61.
3-POINT GOALS: CE — Esposito, Jones, Baldachino; ANC — Bryant, Marshall 2.
