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Cannon fires St. Peter's over Monsignor Farrell
Photo by Dylan Butler
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Andrew Cannon is the undisputed leader of the St. Peter’s basketball team. How he goes, the Eagles go.
And through three quarters Thursday night against rival Monsignor Farrell in Oakwood, that wasn’t very good.
Cannon’s shooting funk continued against the rival Lions and the senior guard had just four points through three quarters.
“It’s been happening the last couple of days,” Cannon said. “I’ve just been missing pretty much every shot.”
But Cannon wouldn’t miss four free throws in the final 1:02, lifting St. Peter’s to a 44-40 win in front of a raucous crowd at Monsignor Farrell.
“It was very relieving,” Cannon said. “I don’t know what I would have done if I missed those. Thank God.”
Cannon finished with 10 points, none bigger than a pair of free throws with the Eagles trailing by one with a little more than a minute remaining in regulation.
“I just didn’t want to lose this game,” Cannon said. “I couldn’t so it was whatever I had to do.”
Despite Cannon’s struggles from the field, Latrell Curtis had no doubt when Cannon stepped to the line.
“He’s our best player,” Curtis said. “I knew he was going to knock them down. He wasn’t going to let us down.”
Cannon felt his team was just cruising for three quarters. The wake-up call came when John Orsino’s layup gave Monsignor Farrell (6-9) a 37-30 lead with 5:32 left in the fourth.
“We all just snapped into it and played a lot harder,” Cannon said.
Curtis, who had 11 points, five rebounds and two steals, provided the spark. After a Michael Sanborn free throw, the sophomore guard picked up a loose ball and slashed to the basket to cut the Eagles deficit to 37-33 with 4:27 left.
“Coach told me to be aggressive after loose balls,” Curtis said. “I definitely felt I had to pick that one up and get the easy score.”
St. Peter’s (10-4) ended the game on a 14-3 run. It was a much better finish than the Eagles start.
“I thought Farrell was outhustling us in the first half,” St. Peter’s coach Charlie Driscoll said. “I told the guys I could take not winning a game if we don’t shoot well, but if we’re outhustled by another team it’s something that’s not acceptable.”
Kevin Crowe also provided a spark off the bench for St. Peter’s with a team-high 12 points and six rebounds. The Eagles jumped in front 12-4 and led through much of the first half, but Connor Nicholson buried a 3-pointer to beat the first-half buzzer to send the Lions into the locker room with a 27-26 lead.
Stephen Steyer scored 14 points, including a bucket going to the hole with 2:37 left in the fourth to extend Monsignor Farrell’s lead to 40-37.
After Cannon put St. Peter’s in front, 41-40, with two free throws, Nicholson (nine points) missed a jumper with 34 seconds left. Cannon was fouled and knocked down two more foul shots with 28.1 seconds left and then helped force Nicholson into a tough shot inside the 3-point line.
“Andrew kind of put the team on his back even though he wasn’t shooting well,” Driscoll said. “He willed us to win.”
Contact Dylan Butler at dbutler3@cablevision.com
Follow him on Twitter: @Dylan_Butler
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