Saints Peter & Paul avenges last year's championship game loss; Sabres defeat Beth Tfiloh for MIAA C title
Garett Hemingway and Brayden Smith combine for 34 points as SSPP returns to Easton with the MIAA championship plaque for the first time since 2016
by Derek Toney
With 40 seconds remaining in Saturday evening’s MIAA C Conference basketball championship game at UMBC, the student section behind the Saints Peter & Paul bench started the chant, “Start the buses.”
The trip, more than two hours in total, was definitely sweeter for the Sabres, who posted a 68-58 victory over Beth Tfiloh inside Chesapeake Employees Insurance Arena. Junior guard Garett Hemingway finished with 19 points for Saints Peter & Paul (13-7 overall), and Brayden Smith added 15.
The Easton school pulled away in the second half to claim its first league title since 2016. The Sabres lost to Beth Tfiloh, 65-58, in last year’s championship match at CEI Arena.
It was redemption for Hemingway, who started in the 2023 final.
“Amazing…we didn’t want to feel that way again,” said Hemingway, 6-foot-3. “We came out, played hard, played defense and we got it.”
A few weeks ago, Hemingway watched from the bench with a sprained ankle as Beth Tfiloh routed Saints Peter & Paul, 72-45. The Sabres, with Hemingway back, put together a balanced effort offensively Saturday evening.
Senior forward K’den Spears scored nine of his 13 points in the second half and pulled down six rebounds. Sophomore Robbie Cunningham finished with 11 as the Sabres led by as many as 16 points in the second half.
“If we play defense like we should, get out and run, everyone gets to touch the ball and with our shooting ability, that’s going to open up everything,” said Saints Peter & Paul coach Gary Gould. “If we got three people hitting jump shots, we’re going to be tough to beat.”
The Sabres did a solid job defensively, especially against Beth Tfiloh senior guard Michael Cohen. Cohen had 17 points Saturday night after lighting up Saints Peter & Paul for 35 in last year’s championship match.
After Cohen opened the second half with a basket, the Sabres scored the next seven points, capped with a Smith’s NBA-range 3-pointer for a 34-26 advantage. The lead hit double-digits, 42-31, after Smith dropped another 3-point dagger.
“We got our minds right at halftime, we started pushing the ball a little bit more,” said Smith, who added four rebounds and two assists Saturday. “We got three or four guys who can hit college 3s and when we space the floor it helps a lot.”
Saints Peter & Paul led 49-33 early in the fourth quarter before Beth Tfiloh scored seven straight to charge within 49-40. Spears and Hemingway answered with drives to the basket for the Sabres, who were swept by Beth Tfiloh in the regular season.
After winning its first championship since 2000 last year, Beth Tfiloh hopes for a repeat came apart in the second half Saturday. Jake Schloss led the Warriors (21-6) with a game-high 23 points along with three assists and three steals.
Beth Tfiloh coach Ari Braun said his team struggled against Saints Peter & Paul’s zone in the second half.
“That (zone) really bothered us and we weren’t doing a great job attacking,” said Braun, who started five seniors (Schloss, Cohen, Dani Ocken, Julian Kontoff and Elan Vogelstein) Saturday. “A lot of our offense comes from transition when we get stops and rebounds and we didn’t rebound…they were hitting the glass hard, getting second, third, fourth shots and we were settling for jump shots.”
Gould, who was assistant on Saints Peter & Paul’s 2016 championship squad, challenged his seniors after overcoming a first quarter double-digit deficit to beat Key last month.
The Sabres won their final eight decisions.
“Last year, we gave a great effort but just came up short. We said in the offseason we didn’t want to feel the same way,” said Smith. “We had the goal to make the playoffs, make it back to the championship game and have a different overcome. We did it.”