Closing spree carries St. Paul's to it's first B Conference basketball title since 2017
The Crusaders closed the game in a 13-4 run to defeat Severn in the title game
by Nelson Coffin
In a game of runs, a final sprint carried St. Paul’s past two-time defending champ Severn in the B Conference final Tuesday at UMBC’s Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena.
The Admirals (18-8) scored the first 10 points to open the fourth quarter, giving them enough momentum — and a one-point lead over the Crusaders — to pull off a three-peat.
The top-seeds, who avenged their only league loss of the season in a 70-58 verdict over Concordia Prep in the semifinal round, typically display the kind of tenacity and poise that make comebacks like that one look easy.
Second-seeded St. Paul’s (17-7), though, provided plenty of push-back by closing out the game with a 13-4 spree of its own to claim a 61-53 victory and the program’s fist title since 2017.
Senior guard and game MVP Kaden Edwards drilled a baseline three-pointer to give the Crusaders a 51-49 advantage to halt Severn’s 10-0 broadside in its tracks.
Although the Admirals would draw even on a nifty reverse by junior forward DJ Lee (14 points) with under three minutes remaining in regulation, they would never regain the lead.
“We knew they weren’t going to go away quietly,” St. Paul’s coach Phil Hahn said about designing a play to try to counter the Crusaders’ outburst. “We needed to call a timeout. Playing against them — settled is difficult. That was a play we designed specifically against their defense. It worked out. It’s exactly how we scripted that. (Kaden) hit a big three, it’s a momentum game — and we took it back.”
Senior forward Andrew Cooper’s stick-back put the Crusaders back on top, 53-51, until his diving steal resulted in Kaden Edwards’ layup that widened the margin to 55-51 with under two minutes left in the final period.
Cooper (13 points), assisted by sophomore forward Cole Edwards (12 points), finished a fast break to boost the lead to six points with 92 seconds to go.
With time running out after Lee answered for Severn, the Admirals fouled Cole Edwards and junior forward Cahron Wheeler, who combined to go four-for-six from the line to seal the deal.
In addition to his key fourth-quarter three, Kaden Edwards, who produced 10 of his 14 points in the second half, was also instrumental in helping St. Paul’s to take a 48-39 lead at the end of the third quarter after trailing, 30-26, at the half. His buzzer-beating triple closed the period.
He said that he wasn’t worried about the Admirals’ fourth-quarter rally.
“We just had to keep playing our game, like we know how to,” Kaden Edwards added. “Keep our foot on the gas pedal and just keep playing basketball.”
Hahn said that a healthy rivalry has developed between the Crusaders and Admirals. Fresh in his mind, was last year’s title-game setback to Severn.
“We’re always trying to beat them and they’re always trying to beat us,” he continued. “It’s kind of a clash of styles, in some respects. We typically have been playing a lot of zone, which we did go into tonight, and they play man (-to-man). I told (Severn coach) Mike (Glasby) that he’s made me a better coach because I have to get ready for them. I will say that we didn’t want them to get a three-peat on our watch.”
“We’ve played against bigger teams that have a little more size in conference play,” he said. “And we’ve made a point of, even though being of a smaller stature, to be aggressive on the ball. I just don’t know if we did a great job of that tonight. They were able to be physical in certain moments, and hit the glass to get second-chance points. We were able to have momentum at certain points, but we weren’t able to have enough momentum.”
Lee and senior guard Sean Harvey provided all the scoring punch for the Admirals during the fourth quarter and scored 17 points apiece.