Montrose Wins Thriller vs Paul VI
Ron Bailey, Publisher
February 3, 2009 – Saturday was a treat for D.C. area high school hoops fans, as nationally recognized Montrose Christian defeated Paul VI at the University of Maryland’s Comcast Center’s upper gym, 52-50. Recently the trend has been for schools of this caliber not in the same conference – Montrose Christian is independent while Paul VI belongs to the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference – to avoid playing. Luckily for all in attendance, the leaders of these teams eschewed such thinking.
“I want to give Coach (Glenn) Farrello a lot of credit for getting together with us and scheduling a game” said Montrose’s head man, Stu Vetter. “I thought it would benefit him and definitely benefit us and ultimately benefit the area”.
Farrello felt similarly, and had another motivation for playing such a challenging out of conference foe, this late in the season.
Though Blake Bozeman (2 pts) and Jordan Roach (6 pts) didn't drop big scoring numbers, they each impacted their team favorably down the stretch.
“That’s the reason you do it, you want to play great teams” stated Paul VI’s second year head coach, agreeing that the contest could help ready itself for the WCAC’s tournament. “We wanted to use it in the last month and a half to get prepared. Obviously it was a playoff atmosphere with the intensity level”.
His senior point guard, Eric Green showed he’s rounding into form with 17 points. Green, headed to Virginia Tech next year, also illustrated moxie and toughness late in the contest; with his team trailing by a couple of points, Green hit stop and pop and long distance shots, as well as created a late turnover with Paul VI down only two.
“I think I played pretty well…I helped my team and my team helped me” said the unassuming Green afterward. Farello wasn’t surprised by his play, noting “That’s one of the reasons he came here; he wanted to play against top competition on a daily basis…and I think you are starting to see that (development)”.
Sophomore forward Dion Jones also has benefited from the Paul VI program and its challenging schedule, scoring 13 much needed points, including two key, game tying foul shots with 28.4 to go.
Farello on his team, which lost soon thereafter, on a stick back by senior guard Dominic Milburn with 4.7 in regulation: “Of our starting five, nobody was in the WCAC…we were right there. We just have to learn how to finish”.
Montrose’s Mouphtaou “Moph” Yarou is one player that knows how to close a game, as much of his 18 point, seven rebound production came in the second half, including seven of ten points in a crucial fourth quarter stretch. That production, which came around the rim and despite a zone defense, included an alley oop and three foul shots. The Villanova-bound senior frontcourt player would not let Montrose lose.
“He’s physically imposing yet he has great footwork” opined Farello of Moph. “He did a great job getting position and being tough”.
Vetter has come to expect such dominance from Yarou and revealed a bit of inside information: “Moph’s been one of the best big men in the country all year long…He’s been strong for us all year. He’s been a little bit under the weather, he wasn’t quite himself today. I thought he did a great job of fighting through it”.
Paul VI’s Green thought the game was a good measuring stick for the team, now 11-8, remarking “It shows we can play with the big boys, even though they say we can’t”.
Montrose’s (15-1) Vetter was quick to retort the widely held presumption his team doesn’t play much challenging competition locally, saying “I think we’ve done a good job of that. This year we’ve played TC Williams, one of the top teams in Northern Virginia. Next week we play Jeb Stuart, a team with a great record at 15-2. We try and play a WCAC school every year, but it does take two people to schedule a game”.
This season, all must agree that game was indeed done. Let’s hope going forward more of these high profile match ups will transpire.