WILMINGTON — St. Andrew’s used its height to stay close to St. Elizabeth into the second quarter when their boys basketball teams met for a Dec. 9 matinee, but the Vikings took control and never looked back in a 76-43 win at the St. E Center.
Elijah Proctor-Moore won the opening tap for the Saints and headed straight toward the hoop, where he finished an alley-oop after a pass from Talan Esposito. Darnell Lloyd added a mid-range turnaround jumper and a dunk in the first quarter as the Saints moved to an 8-5 lead. The Vikings tied the score with 3:15 left in the first on a three-pointer by Kenneth Hunter Jr., and St. E’s turned a steal into a big dunk for Aiden Tobiason for the lead. Tobiason threw down another dunk at the end of the quarter for an 18-12 Vikings lead.
St. Andrew’s, which brought a large cheering section to Wilmington for the game, scored the first five points of the second, with an old-fashioned three from Lloyd cutting the Vikings’ lead to 18-17. But those were the final points of the half for the visitors.
St. Elizabeth scored the next 19 points, all but one of them coming on a three-pointer. After a timeout, Julius Wright and Tobias Reese hit back-to-back triples. They were just getting started. Smothering defense from the Vikings caused numerous Saints turnovers, and St. Elizabeth was deadly from outside. The lone point not scored from deep in the quarter came near halftime when Tobiason hit one of two free throws.
The offense continued after halftime, with five Vikings scoring in the third. Lloyd got going again for the Saints, scoring eight in the quarter, but St. Elizabeth led by a healthy margin going into the fourth quarter.
Hunter had 20 to lead the Vikings. Three players each had 15: Wright, Reese and Tobiason. St. Elizabeth made 17 three-pointers. The Vikings (1-0) host William Penn on Dec. 14 at 7:15 p.m.
For the Saints, Lloyd had 17, and Joshua Ho had 11, all in the second half. St. Andrew’s (1-2) visits William Penn on Dec. 12 at 5:15 p.m.
Screen shots from video by Mike Lang.
