Saint Joseph takes care of business in 53-38 victory over John Glenn for regional title

SOUTH BEND – If you are looking for a Cinderella story this year in Hoosier Hysteria, look no further than coach Eric Gaff’s South Bend Saint Joseph Huskies.

The Huskies, who finished fourth in the Northern Indiana Conference behind champion Riley, runner-up Mishawaka Marian and Penn, find themselves headed to the Class 3A northern semistate next Saturday after easily taking care of conference foe John Glenn, 53-38, for the Class 3A-Regional 10 title at South Bend Washington’s Great Western Forum.

Senior Jayce Lee scored a team-high 17 points, 10 of them in the fourth quarter with the help of three thunderous dunks, and junior Chase Konieczny added 15 as the Huskies moved to 18-9 with their third straight victory and sixth in their last seven games. In fact, the Huskies are 12-2 with only losses to Marian (54-51) and Mishawaka (57-55) since Jan. 16.

“It feels really good to be moving on,” said Gaff, who is in his third year as head coach and will find out where his Huskies will play next Saturday and against whom after the Indiana High School Athletic Association conducts its semistate draw Sunday.

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“I thought we were able to keep the game at our pace,” Gaff said. “I thought the guys played unselfish in moving the ball to guys who were scoring, and we rebounded when it mattered.”

The Huskies, who pressure the opposition from end line to end line, took control of the game from the start in taking a 17-4 lead after the first quarter. Saint Joseph forced seven turnovers and made things difficult for coach Travis Hannah’s 13-14 Falcons, who lost their NIC meeting at Saint Joseph by a 73-40 score on Feb. 6.

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“We tried to slow the game down,” Hannah said. “We tried to play (2-3) zone defense. The problem is we turned the ball over too many times early and then you’re trying to play catch up against this team, and you can’t do that. You go man-to-man against them and you see them doing chin-ups on the rim.”

It also didn’t help the Falcons that they got points from only three players. Senior Joseph Chrapliwy led the way with a game-high 19 points, one more than senior point guard Chase Miller. The other point belonged to senior Carson Krueger on a free throw in the final quarter.

“That’s been the story all year for us,” said Hannah, whose team won the Bi-County championship and last week’s Tippecanoe Valley sectional. “We’ve been searching for that balance all year. Tonight, offensively, it was like we were playing 5-on-2.”

Miller had all of Glenn’s points in the first quarter as Saint Joseph opened up a 17-4 lead behind nine points from the 6-foot-3 Konieczny, who then didn’t score a point until the fourth quarter when he hit a long 3-pointer from the wing for a 40-24 lead. Lee then produced three huge dunks, the last of which made it 49-31 with 2:53 remaining.

“Props to Jayce,” Konieczny said in complimenting the 6-foot-4 Lee. “He’s been a great teammate all season and he’s a good dude away from the basketball court.”

With the help of his three dunks, Lee finished 7-of-10 shooting in leading the Huskies, who shot 52.4 percent from the floor (22 of 42).

“We’ve been putting a lot of work in this year, and for us to come together and play a game like that means a lot,” Lee said. “We have a lot of weapons on this team. Chase is our guy, but when he’s not going, we have a lot of tools to propel our team. It starts from the defensive end. You can always play good defense.”

And you can’t win a championship without good defense.

SOUTH BEND SAINT JOSEPH 53, JOHN GLENN 38

At Great Western Forum, South Bend Washington

JOHN GLENN (38): Chase Miller 18, Joseph Chrapliwy 19, Kaden Lang 0, Joseph Shoue 0, Carson Krueger 1, Joseph Divine 0, Dylan Albright 0, TOTALS 12 9-14 38

SAINT JOSEPH (53): Chase Konieczny 15, Nick Shrewsberry 5, Jerry Barca 0, Jayce Lee 17, Braylen White 2, Elijah King 8, Brashaun Woods 6, Tyler Brown 0, Ryder Place 0, Brady Mansfield 0, TOTALS 22 4-6 53.

John Glenn | 4 | 13 | 24 | 38

Saint Joseph | 17 | 28 | 37 | 53

3-point goals: John Glenn 5 (Miller 3, Chrapliwy 2), Saint Joseph 5 (Konieczny 2, King 2, Shrewsberry 1). Shooting: John Glenn 12 of 35 for 34.3 percent; Saint Joseph 22 of 42 for 52.4 percent. Rebounds: John Glenn 18 (Miller 3, Chrapliwy 3), Saint Joseph 28 (Konieczny 8). Turnovers: John Glenn 15, Saint Joseph 12. Total fouls (fouled out): John Glenn 11 (Shoue), Saint Joseph 12 (none). Technical: Saint Joseph 1 (Lee for hanging on rim). Records: Saint Joseph 18-9, John Glenn 13-14.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Saint Joseph boys basketball wins 3A IHSAA Regional with victory over Glenn