A host of basketball players coached by Bishop Ludden’s long-time mentor, Pat Donnelly, came back to their alma mater Saturday, and it wasn’t just to participate in the Alumni Game that was part of the annual Rosemary Corcoran Memorial Holiday Tournament.
They also got to witness Donnelly record his 500th coaching victory in a tense tournament championship game against Utica-Notre Dame, the Gaelic Knights hanging on at the wire to edge the Jugglers 54-53.
Donnelly said that, more than his own work, “it was the guys that got these 500 wins that matter the most.”
This latest Ludden incarnation halted Utica-Notre Dame’s seven-game win streak, which included an impressive 85-64 romp over Liverpool in Friday night’s opening round that included 14 successful 3-pointers on the Jugglers’ part.
At first, the task appeared quite easy. Going inside to the duo of Jack Rauch and Zach Walser, the Gaelic Knights threatened to put UND away in the first quarter, roaring out to a 19-4 lead.
From that point, though, the Jugglers began to chip away, ignoring the foul trouble of its top two players, Joe Sullivan and Kevin Warmack, to clamp down on defense, especially in the paint, where Rauch and Walser faced constant double teams.
“They (the Jugglers) turned it up a notch, and we got complacent,” said Donnelly.
That made the work of Ludden’s freshman guard, Mika Adams-Woods, that much more important. Hitting on a variety of shots and frustrating UND’s defenders, Adams-Woods posted a game-high 25 points.
Adams-Woods, said Donnelly, is “more than a point guard. He sees the floor well. Getting a third scorer is pretty good.”
And still, it nearly slipped away. Clutch 3-point shots from the likes of Jerome Brabham (who hit four of them on his way to 18 points) and Alex Rushton (he had three from beyond the arc, and 13 points overall) made the Jugglers’ deficit shrink as the game entered the final minute.
Then, trailing 54-51, UND pulled within one on Warmack’s driving lay-up. Adams-Woods was fouled with 28 seconds left, but the front end of a one-and-one free throw went off the rim, and the Jugglers came up with it.
After a time-out, UND set up a possible winning shot. Again, Warmack drove up the middle, drawing defenders, but this time passed to the right wing, where Sullivan, who was held to 12 points, tried a 3-pointer, but it was short, and the ball was batted away as the clock ran out.
So Ludden now had a one-point win to go with the one-point defeat (63-62) it took to Jamesville-DeWitt two weeks earlier, and the high drama mirrored, to some degree, the previous night’s 79-67 win over LeMan Prep, from New York City, that got Donnelly to 499 career victories.
For most of the game, the Bulls played on even terms with the Gaelic Knights, trailing only by one, 53-52, going to the fourth quarter. But Ludden pulled away in the final minutes, largely on the strength of its familiar inside duo.
Rauch, who would be named the tournament MVP, put together 21 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. Walser, benefiting from those passes, had a season-best 28 points, while Adams-Woods continued to show his improvement, finishing with 19 points.
LeMan Prep would go on to lose the consolation game to Liverpool 68-57, leading most of the way before the Warriors, led by Matt Hunter (21 points) and Joe Sullivan (18 points), closed the game on a 26-6 run.
Ludden hosts Section V power Bishop Kearney next Saturday afternoon at 2:30 before league play resumes Jan. 6 against visiting Fulton.
