Calvert Hall came to Loyola Blakefield with a 15-4 record to face a .500 Loyola squad that was coming off two tough losses to Mount St. Joseph and St. Frances this week,
but when these two teams meet, you can throw out the records for 32 minutes. A standing room only crowd at Blakefield watched the Dons run their methodical offense, and play tenacious defense, as they stayed within striking distance until the Cards pulled away with 21 fourth quarter points enroute to a 58-42 MIAA A Conference win.
The Hall grabbed a 17-7 lead at the end of the first eight minutes of play, but the second quarter belonged to the Dons, as Mike Fitzpatrick nailed two trey's and John Fiocco scored five quick points,. The Dons trailed by only four at the half, 31-27.
Calvert Hall's Donya Jackson, who led all scorers with 20 points, helped coach John Bauersfeld's team hold their first half lead, but after Fitzpatrick launched a three with two seconds to go in the half, the Loyola faithful anticipated an upset.
The Dons trailed by six at the end of the third quarter, and it looked like David might get Goliath, until Jackson and Graham combined for 15 fourth quarter points that propelled the Hall to the win.
Graham had 17 points, grabbed 14 boards, blocked five shots, dished three assists, and was 9-of-10 from the free throw line for the Hall.
Loyola was led by Fitzpatrick with 12 points, and James Murphy added 10. Murphy dueled Graham all night.
"You can't really stop him," said Murphy. "He's a great player."
Murphy scored inside against the towering Graham early in the third quarter, when the Dons cut the Calvert Hall lead to two.
"We had some open looks," said Fitz, "but we just didn't knock our shots down in the second half."
Indeed, the Dons shot 48% from the floor in the first 16 minutes, but they could only hit 7-for-27 after intermission, and it wasn't good enough to keep pace with the Cardnals.
Loyola coach Josh Davalli was pleased with the way his team played.
"We came off a tough loss to St. Frances on Tuesday, and we needed to play better tonight and we did," said the Loyola leader. "We fought hard for 32 minutes."
Bauersfeld said that his team did a good job of keeping up the intensity
"We did what we needed to do," echoed Graham.
The crowd anticipated a typical Loyola-Calvert Hall battle, and in the end, there was just too much Jackson and Graham.
