The Saint

Story by Marshal Acosta

   The Aquinas College Men’s Basketball team took on Grace Christian in what turned out to be an offensive showdown between two teams whose campuses are within 15 minutes of each other. The Saints got off to a great start as Tommy Gregwer hit a three to open up the game and then added a layup and an assist to Sam Mendendorp to score the first seven points for the Saints, as they would take the lead and never trail the rest of the game. The Saints would lead 9-4 but Grace Christian would soon score five straight unanswered points to tie it up 9-9. The game was tied 9-9 early until a Kaleb Mitchelson steal that would eventually lead to him scoring a layup would make it 11-9 Saints heading into the first media timeout with 14:56 left in the first half. 

   It was a back and forth contest for the next five minutes as Aquinas was leading 26-23 with 9:28 left to play in the first half. Both teams were starting to find their groove on offense and that would lead to the Saints hitting back to back threes by Tommy Gregwer and Donovan Brown-Boyd while going on a 19-14 scoring run giving them the lead 45-37 at the half. Aquinas shot very well from the field in the first half making 60% of their shots on 25 attempts that included shooting 62.5% from behind the three point line. Grace Christian didn’t quite shoot the ball as well as Aquinas but still shot nearly 43% from the field while shooting 55% from beyond the three point line.

   The Saints continued their hot shooting into the start of the second half going on a 9-0 scoring run causing Grace Christian to take a timeout 2 minutes and 15 seconds into the second half. The Tigers scored a bucket out of the timeout to stop the 9-0 scoring run by AQ and to bring the game within 15 but that is as close as they would get as the Saints offense kept fire and would end up going on a 11-8 scoring run bringing the score to 65-45 in favor of the saints with 13:21 to play in the second half. The Tigers had no response offensively or defensively as the Saints would shoot 57% from the floor and 41% from beyond the three point line.This offensive explosion would lead the Saints to a 89-75 win over Grace Christian to improve their record to 5-3 on the season. 

   Leading scorers for the Saints were Donovan Brown-Boyd with 20 points and Andrew Larson with 13 points. The Leading scorers for Grace Christian were Melvin Frazier and Ty Thiel with 16 points apiece. 

   The Saints next game will be this Saturday December 9th against conference opponent and nationally ranked #20 Lourdes.