Photo Gallery; Friday Scores; Standings

After losing three out of their last four WCAC league games, Good Counsel headed into a pivotal WCAC match up Friday night against the St. John’s Cadets in need of a win. Ben Hazel, Rodney Glasgow and Sean Wright combined for 54 points as the Falcons beat St. John’s 73-64 to move into third place in the WCAC.

“I told our guys that with every game in our league, the next one is the most important one,” said Coach Blair Mills. “The league has so much parody and so many quality teams, that in the loss to PVI hopefully we learned how to get better and execute down the stretch.”

The Falcons execution was deadly. From the opening tip, Good Counsel seemed determined to give it their all. As the teams both made their first attempts, the Falcons stayed hot.

Senior Ben Hazel knocked in Good Counsel’s first three, and it must have been contagious because the rest of his team joined in. By the end of the period, Hazel and Glasgow had two three-pointers apiece and Jemel Sessoms had three. The Falcons as a team went 7 for 9 from behind the arc in the first quarter, but Cadets junior Chris Martin scored nine points in the quarter to keep his team within striking distance, only trailing 27-19.

Hazel would take his hot hand right into the second quarter, and after the Cadets cut the lead to two, Hazel would answer with two three-pointers to push the lead back to eight. St. Johns had a hot handoff their own, and rode Martin until they tied the game up at 40. Martin would then hit a fall away three-pointer right before the halftime buzzer, to give the Cadets a 43-42 lead. The Cadets used an 11-2 run to close out the first half.

The game would continue to go back and forth, but the Falcons seemed to turn up their defensive intensity. After senior forward Sean Wright blocked a potential dunk, Glasgow would take the ball and race down the court for a nice pull-up jumper that put Good Counsel up one, 53-52, at the end of the third.

As the fourth quarter began, the teams began trading baskets again, and the hot shooting of the Falcons seemed to be cooling off.

Except Julian Harrell.

Off the bench, Harrell came in to knock down a crucial three-pointer, and after another Glasgow lay up, Good Counsel found themselves up by five.

After Wright knocked down some clutch free throws, the Falcons held on to defeat the Cadets 73-64.

Scoring Summary

St. John’s: Chris Martin 22, Denzel Primus-Devonish 17, Julian Debose 13, Ryan McNeill-Moses 5, Jamal Powell 4, Norman Pope 3.

Good Counsel: Ben Hazel 19, Rodney Glasgow 18, Sean Wright 17, Jemel Sessoms 9, Julian Harrell 5, Matt McCarthy 3, Devin Wright-Nelson 2.