Jan 24, 2008

Skyline tops Canada

Height advantage helps Trojans win

By Vytas Mazeika / Daily News Staff Writer

One men's basketball coach played his bench because it was a luxury. The other played his bench out of frustration. Based on the score of Wednesday night's game in San Bruno, it's not hard to figure out which coach sat on which bench.

Skyline College pulled away from visiting Canada in the second half to win 80-55, using its height advantage to create an insurmountable number of second-chance opportunities while getting to the free throw line with frequency.

"I think early in the game we were pressing a little bit," said Skyline coach Justin Piergrossi, making note of the emotions involved in playing former high school rivals and teammates. "But I think once we calmed down and got into our groove, we really started to click."

The first half was well contested - for the most part.

Skyline (13-10 overall, 2-3 Coast North) used a 10-point run that required less than two minutes in order to build a 12-5 lead. The hero early on for the Trojans was sophomore guard Darren Morrison, who scored 12 of his game-high 19 points during the first half.

But Canada (3-19, 0-4) refused to go away initially, putting together a 10-2 run to tie things up at 17 with 8:59 left in the half. The run started with a 3-pointer plus a dash through the lane from Burlingame product Chris Nakiso, and ended with a 3-pointer from Sam Green (San Mateo High).

Canada small forward Michael Granucci (Carlmont) kept the Colts on pace with a 3-pointer of his own and two free throws. Then the roof caved in, as Skyline got contributions from its two Mills High centers - Mario Flaherty and Dan Fochtman - to pull away.

Over the final 2:13 of the first half, the 6-foot-7 Fochtman scored three times in the paint, adding insult to injury with a bank-shot free throw he certainly didn't call. All of a sudden, after denying the ball inside for most of the first half and contesting almost every shot, Canada found itself down 33-24 at the break.
"There's two things I can't handle, lack of effort and lack of execution," Canada coach Lamont Quattlebaum said. "If you miss 20 shots running the stuff that we're doing and getting the shots that we wanted, I have no problem with you. If we're executing our defensive scheme and they're still getting the basket, then we're fine.

"And this team, this year, has struggled with execution."

The Colts tried to cut into the deficit when guard Nick Wong, who attended Mills with four members of the opposing Trojans, nailed a shot from beyond the arc to open the second half.

But the 6-foot-8 Flaherty, who towered over whoever often guarded him, scored the first six Skyline points coming out of the locker room, extending the lead into double digits for the first time at 39-29.

"I just came out, I felt awake, I was ready to go, I got the ball and I just went to work," Flaherty said. "From there, all my points came."

There would be no mercy for a former high school teammate like Wong, as Flaherty scored all 12 of his second half points - often on putback efforts - in the first 9:20 of play.

"Once you get on the court, friend, family, it doesn't matter. I'm out here to do my job," said Flaherty, who finished with 17 points and shot 9-of-12 from the charity stripe. "I'm out here to win. It's nice to see them, but it's nice to win."

The Skyline lead was at 57-41 when Flaherty scored his final points, but the Trojans were far from done. An 11-3 spurt in which Skyline was finally able to get out on transition made it a 24-point edge, 68-44, with 6:06 to go.

"It's like a YMCA game, fly, fly, fly," Quattlebaum said. "You'll never beat them if you play like that."

Twelve players ended up scoring for the Colts, though none reached double digits as the bench was cleared in search for a combination of five players on the court who could execute the game plan.

"They're good kids," Quattlebaum said. "They fight hard and they play hard, but if you stop executing it doesn't matter how hard you play."

Skyline had 12 players score, including a late layup for Antonio Dillon (Mills) and a basket off an inbound for Mike Lavelle - both seldom used players who received ovations from their bench.







"Those guys work very hard every day," Piergrossi said. "It's great when they have an opportunity to get in the game."

It's a luxury not every coach gets.









E-mail Vytas Mazeika at vytas@dailynewsgroup.com.



Canada 24 31 - 55

Skyline 33 47 - 80

S-Morrison 7 5-5 19, Flaherty 4 9-12 17, Fochtman 4 1-2 9, Whitley 3 0-1 7, Ngo 3 0-1 6, Battle 1 2-2 5, Rod Freeman 2 1-2 5, Ron Freeman 2 0-0 4, Echols 1 0-0 2, Patch 0 2-2 2, Dillon 1 0-0 2, Lavelle 1 0-0 2. Totals 29 20-26 80.

C-Moore 4 1-1 9, Green 3 0-0 8, Nakiso 3 0-0 7, Granucci 1 3-3 6, Wong 2 0-0 6, Fazio 2 0-0 5, Bolaria 2 0-2 4, Rugley 1 2-2 4, Reed 1 0-0 2, Wulff 1 0-0 2, Bennett 1 0-0 2. Totals 21 7-11 55.