AUBURN – First-year coach Dan Leland thought he was going to have a running team the first time he saw St. Dom’s on the hardwood. Then, after that team got run off the floor in a couple of preseason games, Leland decided it might be best to pull up on the reins.
It’s taken some time for the Saints to get used to the deliberate style their coach wants them to use. In Tuesday night’s 49-42 win over Waynflete, they may have made their biggest strides of the season.
Justin Richardson tallied a game-high 18 points and controlled the tempo for most of the night. As a result, the Saints never trailed and evened their record to 2-2. The Flyers dropped to 2-3.
Andrew Gilbert added 10 points and six assists for the Saints. Lance Callender led the Flyers with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Andrew Veroneau chipped in with 10 points.
“I think our offense was under control tonight,” Richardson said. “We’ve hit more shots, but in terms of controlling the pace, this was probably our best game.”
“We’re getting better each time out,” Leland said. “We’re moving the ball a little bit better and taking care of the ball better. Their press didn’t seem to bother us today.”
The Saints shot a modest 40 percent from the floor, but Gilbert (five rebounds), Andrew Allen (six points, 10 rebounds) and Joe Bonneau (eight points, seven rebounds) combined for 10 offensive rebounds to give them some big second chances and combined with Billy Colasante (seven rebounds off the bench) to limit Waynflete’s.
That proved critical in the final minutes, as the Flyers made just two of their last 11 shots and made just three of 16 in the fourth period overall.
“I think our defense was pretty sound tonight,” Richardson said. “There were a few spurts where they got a few shots they shouldn’t have gotten, but down the stretch, our big guys did a really good job of boxing out and got some really big boards.”
The Saints took control when Richardson hit a trey for the game’s first points a minute in. An Austin Fuller putback gave them a 14-5 lead, their biggest of the half.
Callender hit a trey to open the second quarter for the game’s only tie, but the Saints jumped out again with a 9-0 run on three-point plays by Gilbert and Colasante and a 3-point shot by Richardson.
The Saints maintained an eight-point lead at the half, then saw it go to double digits for the first time on an Allen putback to open the third quarter.
But after only turning the ball over twice in the first half, they got a little sloppy, losing it four times inside the first four minutes of the period. That helped the Flyers to chip away and get back within three on a Callender jumper that made it 33-30. Gilbert later beat the buzzer with a drive to the hoop that gave the Saints a five-point cushion heading into the fourth.
Waynflete never got inside that five-point margin again because St. Dom’s kept its composure. Bonneau scored six of his eight points in the fourth, and Callender was held scoreless in the final seven minutes.
“We made some good decisions down the stretch,” Leland said. “We ran some clock. In the past, we haven’t been able to take care of the ball to do that.”
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