Lansdale Catholic uses defense, scoring runs to top Germantown Academy

FRANCONIA >> Kyle Kane felt he owed his teammates more.

The Lansdale Catholic junior felt like he hadn’t played well enough in Friday night’s win over Souderton despite scoring most of his points after a sluggish first half. Facing Germantown Academy in the finals of the Jim Church Classic on Saturday, Kane wanted to make up for it.

He did a little more than that, scoring 19 points as LC topped GA 58-41 to win the tournament title with Kane nabbing MVP honors.

“My play last night, at least in the first half, motivated me,” Kane said. “I wasn’t producing, I wasn’t making any shots, I wasn’t helping the team. I wanted to come into tonight’s game and really prove myself.”

GA got off to a really good start and led 15-8 after one, with five different players scoring in the first quarter. LC wasn’t daunted and relied heavily on its defense to start making things go back in its favor. The Crusaders understand they likely won’t blow anyone away offensively, but they feel their defense can be a weapon.

They showed it Saturday, forcing eight steals and then turning most of those into points. LC had three big runs, a 12-0 run in the second, a 10-0 run to end the third and a 15-1 stretch in the fourth quarter where they simply had the Patriots flustered.

“I thought that was the key again for us, defense,” LC coach Joe Corbett said. “The defense turns into transition offense and we started to get some buckets out of our defense, we forced them into tough jump shots, we did a good job rebounding. It was those little things we’ve been working on since the start of the season that gave us that lead that allowed us to win.”

The other thing LC can count on is balance. Kane, who’s not an especially boisterous sort, led the team but the Crusaders had two other guys – Jack Kusters and Luke Godzieba – in double figures and Mo Kahney had nine. It could be three or four different players on a given night, but they don’t just rely on one guy to do everything.

Of course, it also helps when the defense is creating and cashing in on transition chances.

“It gives us a lot of momentum, especially with our team,” Kane said. “It proved itself tonight. We ended up winning the game big after being down.”

After LC took a 22-18 lead with its second quarter run, GA charged back, taking a 25-22 lead into the break on a pair of Jordan Longino free throws. Germantown Academy extended its lead back to six when Brian Basile hit a 3-pointer to start the third and led 35-28 with 2:43 left in the third after Diego Carrasco’s free throws.

Kane scored on a drive, part of an aggressive game by the junior, to kick off the 10-0 quarter-ending run, which he capped with a left wing three that came with 15.8 left in the frame. In between, Kusters had a three-point play and Kahney scored on a driving layup.

“I’ll have to go back and see what we were doing because we had Luke, our big guy, on the bench and we were down and with Nick (Sheetz), his sub in the game, we went up three,” Corbett said. “That was a big point in the game for us to give Luke rest and then get that kind of lead.”

Godzieba, a senior forward still working his way back into form off a knee injury, had a strong game with 10 points and 10 rebounds. He was LC’s answer to everything in the fourth quarter, scoring six points with half his boards coming in the period.

Corbett said it was good to see Godzieba being decisive with the ball down low and with the big man churning, it gave Kahney and Kusters some room to operate. Kane only scored one point in the fourth, but he was more than happy to cede the scoring to his teammates and focus on defending.

“Honestly, it’s just us playing team basketball,” Kane said. “We play as a unit and we have great chemistry together. It developed over time, at the beginning of the year, it wasn’t as good but getting into the games, we’re starting to come together as a team.”

Kahney had seven of his nine in the fourth, adding some scoring to his energetic, physical play. The senior guard is one of those players who’s a pain to go up against but great to have as a teammate and Corbett said his challenge is learning how to keep that style a productive one.

“I love the chippiness and the attitude, but he’s got to know when to draw back a little bit,” Corbett said. “I love the physicality he plays with. Sometimes it can cross the line, but he was great tonight and I told him that in the locker room.”

LC, now 2-0 for the first time in three years, doesn’t have much of a layoff as it hosts Pennridge on Tuesday. Whether it be in the Catholic League or even non-conference games like Tuesday’s, the Crusaders will likely be the underdogs in a lot of matchups this season.

They’re fine with that. It gives them plenty of fuel to keep their frenzied defense rolling.

“For sure, it motivates us,” Kane said.

LANSDALE CATHOLIC 58, GERMANTOWN ACADEMY 41
LANSDALE CATHOLIC 8 14 16 20 – 58
GERMANTOWN ACADEMY 15 10 10 6 – 41
LC – Kyle Kane 7 3-4 19, Jack Kusters 5 8-8 18, Luke Godzieba 4 2-4 10, Mo Kahney 3 3-4 9, Tim Cunane 0 2-2 2, Joey Boccella 0 0-3 0. Nonscoring: Nick Sheetz. Totals: 19 18-25 58.
GA – Colten Smith 2 4-6 9, Diego Carrasco 2 3-4 8, Jordan Longino 2 2-3 7, Brian Basile 2 0-0 5, Lacey Snowden 1 0-0 3, Tim Dion 2 0-2 4, Hans Lillis 1 2-2 4, Mike Roxnan 0 1-2 1. Nonscoring: Juan Adames, Jordan Keys, Lucas Traina. Totals: 12 11-10-19 41.
3-pointers: LC – Kane 2; GA – Snowden, Smith, Basile, Carrasco.