St. Maria Goretti keeps Washington’s boys reeling
Jerome Jones is sandwiched by two St. Maria Goretti defenders as the Gaels edged the Patriots.
St. Maria Goretti visited Washington High on Tuesday and the Hagerstown private school handed the Patriots a third straight loss, 53-48, when Tyrus Fleetwood scored 14 points and handed out five assists. Yannick Zanfack contributed 13 points and claimed seven rebounds for the Gaels, who improved to 13-8 overall with the victory.
Martin Geben totaled 12 points and 13 rebounds as the Gaels battled evenly with the Patriots on the boards. Gavin Rajahpillay was credited with seven assists and six rebounds in the non-conference, road win for the Gaels.
Washington fell to 7-6 overall as it could make only 5-of-12 free throws. The Gaels were 8-for-10 from the foul line.
St. Maria Goretti trailed, 11-8, after one quarter but had taken a low-scoring, 22-21, lead by halftime. Washington was able to score 20 points in the third period to take a short-lived 41-40 lead into the last stanza.
The Gaels outscored the homestanding Patriots, 13-7, in the fourth quarter to get the win.
However, the fourth quarter opened with Washington at the end of an 11-0 run of points that had propelled it to a 45-40 lead with about 6:30 left to play.
But the Gaels responded to the Washington surge with an 11-2 scoring sortie of their own to assume a 51-47 lead when Fleetwood canned a pair of three-pointers. Rajahpillay converted all four of his free throws in the final stages.
Tyrek Collier (13 points), Dominique Newman (12 points), and Christian Coles (seven points) were Washington’s top scorers.
