St. John Neumann Puts It Down in First Round

Ron Bailey, Publisher

December 8, 2006 – Last night during the opening round of the Good Counsel Tip-Off, St. John Neumann (Phila., PA) traveled down Interstate 95, and showed why they are possibly one of the better teams in the east, with a 73-31 victory of St. Albans (Wash., DC). During the contest, the team, coached by Carl Arrigale, not only displayed impressive athleticism, but depth and skill as well.

Arrigale’s team jumped to a 21-2 lead by the end of the first quarter, and never looked back. In addition to their Syracuse University-bound dynamic duo of Rick Jackson (14 points) and Scoop Jardine (6 points), St. John Neumann benefited from the aggressive play of Jamel Wilson (17 points), and Tony Chenault (12 points).

Scoop Jardine (center) on Neumann's performance: “I loved it, the intensity. Everybody was happy. I told my team to play like that”.

Neumann applied impressive full court pressure throughout, which lead to a stream of fast break opportunities. With the score 40-7 at the half, Arrigale was able to play his reserves in the second half.

Though they enjoyed size and athleticism advantages over a game but outmanned St. Albans team, Neumann went into this game blind, so to speak. “We didn’t know much about them” prior to the game, said Arrigale. As such, he instructed his charges to focus on intensity and defensive pressure.

In his opinion, expectations were met. “We challenged our guys to play with defensive intensity from the beginning of the game” he said. Jardine agreed. “It (the game) was good for the young guys, everybody” stated Neumman’s on court leader.

During halftime, Bob Brown was unhappy with his charge's lack of execution.

St. Albans, despite being on the wrong end of the score, didn’t quit during the second half, as they were only outscored by nine during that period. Mike Boyajian led the school with eight points, while leading scorer Ryan Dougherty had three, all in the second half.