In a sloppy game filled with turnovers and missed lay-ups, the Warriors from Our Lady of Lourdes were able to use a strong second half effort behind Joe Zenz’s hot hand from the perimeter in order to gain a 62-49 victory over the Ketcham Indians. Lourdes, who will still play in the Small School Championship tomorrow evening, was led by Joe Zenz’s 15 points. Ketcham received a 14-point effort from Kyle Bender in the loss.

Lourdes got off to a fast start, leading 7-2 after the first two minutes. Numerous missed lay-ups from three feet and in along with unforced turnovers caused a scrappy Ketcham team to take the lead 23-18. Ketcham would hold the 23-20 advantage as both teams regrouped at the half.

As it has often been the case for the Warriors throughout recent years, it has been their defense that has brought them back into games when the offense was not always there. Dom Garbellano and Tom Jordan wreaked havoc with defensive intensity and steals in the backcourt, which yielded easy lay-ups at the other end. Then, Zenz found his shooting touch and knocked down four 3-pointers in the quarter. Andy Stallings put back a miss with 6 seconds left in the third quarter to put OLL up 40-33. From there, the Warriors did not look back. Quickly expanding the lead to 18 with 4:00 to go in the game, Ketcham called timeout to try and put together a run as Arlington had in the previous game. This time the home team did not yield, and Alex Meyer put the exclamation point on the game with a baseline drive and two-handed slam just under the three-minute mark. The Warriors would hold on from there and win the tune-up game for tomorrow’s Championship versus Webutuck.

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