AUBURN — When St. Dominic Academy needed a basket, senior captain Gabe Carey was there. He made sure of it.
Carey led the team in scoring to help the Saints to a 52-35 victory over Hall-Dale in a Class C South boys basketball prelim Wednesday.
Fourth-seeded St. Dom’s (14-5) will play No. 5 Monmouth (11-4) in the regional quarterfinals at Augusta Civic Center on Monday at 7 p.m.
It’s the Saints’ first time advancing to the Civic Center in 13 years, according to St. Dom’s coach Josh LaPrell.
With six minutes left in the game, Carey brought the ball up to the left wing, where he crossed up his defender, stepped back and drilled a 3-pointer to put the Saints up 42-30. Then on the next possession, Carey hit a layup to put the Saints ahead 44-30 with 5:25 to play.
Carey led the team with 24 points in the win.
“I told the guys before the game, ‘I am not losing. When in doubt, get me the ball.’ And that’s what they did,” Carey said. “That’s just my demeanor. I am not going out if I’m not shooting it, and I always told coach that.”
After the 3-pointer, Carey hit another layup and then later a free throw. Play after play, Carey delivered for the Saints.
“He’s such a good leader,” LaPrell said. “He knows when to slow it down and when to attack. There was a stretch there where we were forcing some shots, and then we sort of re-grouped and we got the shots we wanted. Towards the end of the third and beginning of the fourth, we focused on driving to the basket, don’t settle, and made free throws when we needed to.”
Jonathan Tangilamesu was a man on a mission on the boards Wednesday night for St. Dom’s.
The Saints’ freshman forward grabbed eight rebounds in the first quarter and six in the second quarter, with a total of eight on the offensive end.
“He’s just a beast,” LaPrell said. “I think he’s only 6-foot-2, so he’s not a ‘big guy,’ but he is so strong, so active on the glass and I don’t think they were expecting for him to dominate the glass like he did.”
Tangilamesu got his teammates second chances, including an assist on one of Noah Cyr’s two first-quarter 3-pointers.
Tangilamesu finished with 21 rebounds.
While St. Dom’s and No. 13 Hall-Dale (6-13) both struggled to score early in the first, a Taylor Varney floater with 4:12 left in the first quarter opened the scoring for both teams and helped catapult the Saints on a run.
Carey hit back-to-back layups, followed by a Tangilamesu steal that was turned into a quick assist to Varney, who scored a layup on the fast break to put St. Dom’s up 8-2.
Cyr hit back-to-back triples to cap the Saints’ 15-2 run.
“His threes in the first quarter were huge baskets in a critical moment,” LaPrell said. “We weren’t scoring, really. Thankfully we were playing good defense, then those two (3-pointers) got us going. They kept playing hard and I can’t say enough about them.”
Hall-Dale’s Carter Bourque hit a layup at the buzzer to make it a 15-4 lead after a quarter, in favor of St. Dom’s.
The Bulldogs powered back at the start of the second quarter with a 3-pointer from TJ Wilson, a free throw from Max Byron and a layup from Bourque that put Hall-Dale within 16-10 with 3:48 left in the first half.
Carey scored five points in a row with three minutes left to put the Saints ahead 21-10.
LaPrell said the team scouted Hall-Dale’s out-of-bounds plays closely and knew how to defend them.
“We had a great game plan,” LaPrell said. “We prepared for the past couple days and we really focused on their out-of-bounds plays because they really try to get the ball to (Wilson) and (Bourque), and I think (Wilson) is automatic on those plays. We came up with a way to defend them and we completely shut those plays down. They didn’t score on any of them. We just executed and I just can’t say enough about our guys.”
Carey said he was prepared, but wasn’t quite sure what to expect until he got in the game.
“I watched every single game I could have of Hall-Dale; I knew them better than they did,” Carey said. “Out-of-bounds, everything. You just never know until you play them in person.”
St. Dom’s entered the half with a 23-14 lead, but Tangilamesu did pick up his third foul with three seconds left in the first half.
Tangilamesu picked up his fourth foul quickly in the third and sat for most of the period.
Carey scored seven points in the third quarter to help the Saints to a 37-26 lead heading into the fourth. The Saints’ biggest lead was 13 in the third, with Hall-Dale never being able to break into a single-digit deficit. Varney also scored four of his 10 points in the third.
Wilson scored six points to help keep Hall-Dale within range.
With 6:20 left in the game, Campbell Perryman hit two free throws to stop the Hall-Dale run and put St. Dom’s ahead 39-30. The clutch free-throw shooting down the stretch was a far cry from the Saints’ start to the game when they missed their first six from the line.
“Cam comes off the bench and hits two huge free throws in a crucial spot, Jonathan hit his, Taylor hit his and it was awesome,” LaPrell said.
But time and time again, Wilson kept the Bulldogs in the game.
Down 46-30 with 4:20 left and after a layup from Tangilamesu fired up the crowd, Wilson quickly hit a 3-pointer to quiet the fans and pull the Bulldogs with 46-33 with 4:05 to play.
Wilson paced Hall-Dale with 11 points, while Bourque added 10.
After the game, LaPrell gave all the credit to the players for their hard work beginning in the summer.
“They’ve worked so hard since the summer. We played three games a week, practiced hard every day and they earned it,” LaPrell said. “They deserve a chance to get to Augusta. It’s been 13 years and they earned it.”
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