Size pushes Phil-Mont Christian past Christopher Dock in District 1-A quarters
SPRINGFIELD >> Christopher Dock’s goal Friday night was to leave everything it had on the floor at Phil-Mont Christian Academy.
If everything went right, it would mean the Pioneers upsetting the No. 1 seed Falcons in the quarterfinals of the District 1-A tournament. If not, it was supposed to send Dock into the offseason on as high a note as possible.
It was more the latter as Phil-Mont’s size and length, coupled with a second defensive surge led to a 71-47 victory for the Falcons.
“I thought we did that,” Dock coach Mike Fergus said. “We wanted to push the ball, speed up it up and we did that in the first half. We made shots the first half, that was the difference.”
David Giuliani led Phil-Mont (26-1) with a monster 25-point, 10-rebound night, using his big frame and strength to keep possessions alive and carry Phil-Mont when its defense slipped in the first half. Running mate Sean Griffin had a strong outing as well with 19 points, seven boards, three blocks and two steals, helping to spark that second half defending.
Baldez lob to Griffin after steal against Christopher Dock @PaPrepLive pic.twitter.com/bO0zCQqPZu
— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) February 20, 2016
Dock (5-19) came in looking to push pace whenever possible, something Phil-Mont was happy to oblige with. The Pioneers hit plenty of shots in the first half, but not as many in the second, something Fergus noted as a big swing point, especially early in the third quarter.
Meanwhile with athletic lead guard Noah Baldez leading the way and with Giuliani and Griffin running the floor and long-limbed Osaze Thornton coming off the bench to do the same, Phil-Mont had no trouble putting up points. The first ended with the Falcons ahead 40-33, but knowing they had to tighten it up on the back end.
“They’ve been waiting to get into districts, so I was happy with how we started offensively,” Falcons coach Glenn Dolton said. “We had 40 points in the first half but defensively we were not on point. The second half, making a switch I think got them off balance and it got us to where we could stabilize things a little bit.”
Phil-Mont went from a matchup zone to a straight zone, with the idea to shut off the driving lanes that Dock senior Jared Exler (13 points) had used so well in the first half. Dolton said taking away the lanes and backdoors forced Dock to settle a little more, which helped Phil-Mont put some distance on the board.
It didn’t hurt that Dock came out and missed its first four shots of the second half while Giuliani and Griffin continued to pound the ball inside and Giuliani adding an outside touch with an early third quarter 3-pointer.
“David was a monster early on,” Dolton said. “Sean in the second half early on really went after the boards. He was flying around which was great to see.”
Phil-Mont's Sean Griffin with a steal and slam @PaPrepLive pic.twitter.com/8D2GhalUPi
— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) February 20, 2016
Dolton said his team isn’t playing up the pressure of being the top seed but instead keeping focus on the present. After being knocked out in the district semis and denied states last year and with a lot of seniors this year, that’s what’s led them to plenty of success so far.
Dock’s season ends with the loss but Fergus likes what he has coming back with Exler as the biggest loss. The remaining pieces are all underclassmen and after losing a lot from the 2014-15 team, this year was viewed as a growing year.
The scores, with Friday serving the latest example, didn’t always show it, but the coach believes there’s something fostering with his team.
“This year was a good year for us,” Fergus said. “We would have liked to have won more games. We competed and thing is we got better the last part of the year, it may not show in the wins and losses but I told the kids I’m proud of them. When you come in as the eight seed, you just leave it on the court and I felt we did.”
