Blue Eagles Play Just Good Enough to Top Patriots

Struggles at the free throw line and a second half technical foul nearly cost the Nazareth boys varsity basketball team the victory against host Freedom high on Saturday night. But the Blue Eagles were able to get past the second half miscues and beat the Patriots during this matchup, part of the seventh annual George Yasso/Todd Rothrock Christmas City Classic.

Nazareth was ahead of Freedom high by just eight points, after squandering what had been a double-digit frist-half lead, when senior guard Kristopher Kent slammed the basketball against the court in frustration after a turnover.

"I let the emotion get the best of me a little bit," Kent said after the game. "I regret it, but it happened and we still came out with the win, so I'm glad to see that."

In what amounted to the story of the night for the Patriots, junior guard Joesph Lococo was unable to capatialize on the Blue Eagles' mistake,  missing both of the ensuing free throws.

"We were a play or two away from being real close to getting back into that game," Freedom head coach Joseph Stellato said. "I thought we played a really good second half. We just have guys that hadn't played varsity basketball yet."

The Patriots return just two players with varsity experience this season Lococo and senior center/forward Lukas Giovarelli.

Giovarelli, who pulled in 15 points and seven rebounds for Freedom high, summed up the Patriots struggles early on. "First game jitters I guess," he said. "The second half we picked it up as a team."

Chuck Dibillio led all scorers with 19 points. And unlike the rest of the Blue Eagles, Dibillio did not struggle from the free throw line going 5-for-6. Nazareth head coach Joe Arndt pointed his team's constant struggles from the line as something to work on.

"We struggled from the foul line a lot last year coming in (to this season)," Arndt said.

The coach said fatigue was a factor as this matchup went on because his players had played games on back-to-back nights.

"I think our kids were a little tired here," Arndt said. "(Our starters) played a lot of minutes tonight. I think we shot about 50 percent from the foul line. Obviously as the season goes on we are going to have to get better at that."  

Freedom's head coach said even though he was encouraged by his teams play in the second half, he was not happy with the result.

"We want to win basketball games," Stellato said. " We are certainly not satisfied or happy that we lost this game, but we kept making strides in the right direction so we got to just look to Easton now."

Branden Kline, Daniel Harding and Kent each scored 12 points for Nazareth. Lococo led the Patriots with 16 points.