Slow start dooms Conwell-Egan basketball in loss to St. Joe Prep (VIDEO)

FAIRLESS HILLS – They say that a wounded animal is the most dangerous because it’s likely to strike back at any moment.

Saint Joseph’s Prep came into Conwell-Egan Catholic’s gym Friday night (Feb. 5) licking its wounds from five straight losses suffered at the hands of its Philadelphia Catholic League (PCL) rivals.

The Hawks jumped out of the gate quickly in this one, with three straight buckets on a 3-pointer by sophomore Kyle Thompson (14 pts.), a driving layup by classmate Darius Kinnel (16) and a putback by Pete Gayhardt (6) before the game was even two minutes old.

Thompson went coast to coast on a pair of driving layups for the Prep and before you knew it, the Hawks had an 11-3 lead only 4:30 into the battle.

“They had six offensive rebounds in the first three minutes and they set the tone from Jump Street,” commented Eagles head coach Frank Sciolla. “They scored 11 points in the first four and a half minutes and that gave them a great deal of confidence.”

By the time the first period had elapsed, the Hawks (13-8, 7-5 PCL) were holding a 10-point lead. Egan’s only points in the first frame came from Greg Lutz on a layup and a pair of free throws from standout Lapri McCray-Pace.

The leading scorer for the Eagles, McCray-Pace led the team in this one, too with 23 points, though he had just six points at the half. The same goes for classmate Vinny Dalessandro (11 pts.), who drained a pair of 3-pointers in the second period to help keep Egan (14-7, 7-5 PCL) within striking distance.

And the Eagles did strike back in the second quarter, starting the stanza off with a 9-2 run on Vinny’s treys tucked around another by Lapri. With help from St. Joe senior Temi Aiyegbusi – who hit a pair of jumpers including one from 3-point range, the Prep finished the half with a 10-3 scoring run that sent them into the locker room still holding that 10-point lead (26-16).

“It took us a long time – really, the beginning of the second half – to really get moving,” said Sciolla. “I felt like we stood around way too much in the first half.”

Coming back from the break, Egan got a low post basket from Vinnie – the first since that one by Lutz in the opening quarter, and two more threes – first, from Lapri and then by Dalessandro. Sandwiched around a 3-ball by Kinnel, it cut the Hawks’ edge in half.

Twice, the Eagles cut their deficit to four points, first on a 3-pointer by sophomore Eric Esposito (5 pts.) and then on the third trey in the game by McCray-Pace. From there, Egan took control, or so it seemed.

The Eagles finished off the frame with a 5-2 run, thanks to a putback of an Esposito miss by Lapri, who followed that up with a steal in the Hawks’ end of the court before going coast-to-coast on a drive to the basket he finished off with a powerful dunk that sent the full house attending Senior Recognition Night into an exploding frenzy.

With God and that kind of energy on your side heading into the fourth quarter, how could Egan lose?

And yet.

The final period started off well enough; Esposito’s putback of a miss by Lapri gave the Eagles their first lead in the contest, further igniting the Egan faithful.

Whenever the Hawks really needed a basket however, they counted on their point guard, Kinnel.

“He’s one of our leading scorers and he’s a good shooter; we depend on him a lot,” said St. Joe Prep head coach Bill “Speedy” Morris. “He’s still learning how to be a point guard but he plays so hard. He can score points and he’s so positive.”

Kinnel hit a jump shot early on in the last quarter and for good measure, he added a driving layup through the paint, then hit another from the left side of the baseline to put the visitors on top 44-38 with less than 1:30 remaining in regulation.

While McCray-Pace hit a shot off the glass before adding a pair of free throws to cut the Hawks’ lead to two with 33 seconds left, the Prep closed it out with four straight foul shots – two by Thompson and two by Gayhardt.

After the game, Sciolla pointed to his team’s foul shooting as a big factor in the loss, Egan’s third suffered at the hands of PCL foes in its last four duels. While the Hawks shot 85 percent on free throws, the Eagles hit just 65 percent of theirs.

“One of the things that we really struggle with is the foul line,” said Sciolla. “This is the epitaph of every close loss that we’ve had and it’s something that will take us out down the stretch in the playoffs if we can’t be better.”

The loss drops Egan into a three-way tie – with St. Joes and Archbishop Ryan – for fifth-place in the PCL.

The Eagles wrap up the regular season Sunday with a battle against defending PIAA Class AAA champion Neumann-Goretti. The Saints (19-2) are unbeaten (12-0) in the Catholic League and enter the duel ranked 20th in the USA Today boys basketball national rankings.

St. Joseph’s Prep 50, Conwell-Egan 44

(Feb. 5 at Conwell-Egan)

St. Joseph’s 14 12 10 14 – 50

Conwell-Egan 4  12 19  9 – 44

ST. JOSEPH’S PREP — Darius Kinnel 6 2-3 16, Kyle Thompson 4 4-4 14, Temitope Aiyegbusi 3 4-4 11, Pete Gayhardt 2 2-3 6, Evan Wall 1 0-0 2; TOTALS — 16 12-14 50.

CONWELL-EGAN — LaPri McCray-Pace 6 8-11 23, Vinny Dalessandro 4 0-2 11, Eric Esposito 2 0-0 5, Greg Lutz 1 0-0 2, Drew Burton 0 2-2 2, Darian Simmons 0 1-2 1; TOTALS — 13 11-17 44.

3-POINT GOALS: SJP — Kinnel 2, Thompson 2, Aiyegbusi, Wall; CEC — McCray-Pace 3, Dalessandro 3, Esposito.