St. Edward rallies to beat St. Xavier in the state semfinal

By dlabbe

March 14, 2008, 6:58PM

There couldn't have been two points sweeter to Tom Pritchard.

Battling frustration, jawing from anyone on the floor wearing blue and a raucous St. Xavier student section, Pritchard scored 26 points, the exclamation point a fast break dunk with 1:32 to play in the ballgame and a shout for Xavier's Walt Gibler upon landing.

"I wanted to throw it down," said Pritchard, "get my team some energy to finish the game."

Walt Gibler scored 24 points for St. Xavier, but it wasn't enough as the Eagles advance to play the winner of Toledo Whitmer vs. Newark in Saturday night's Division I state championship game following their 68-59 state semifinal victory.

Pritchard and the Eagles turned a 35-25 first half deficit on its head in the third quarter thanks to a 13-0 run behind the play of Pritchard (14 rebounds) and Frankie Dobbs (16 points, 5 assists) in continuing their improbable tournament run. St. Ed didn't lead in the ballgame until 2:37 to play in the third when a Tom Pritchard and-one gave them a 40-39 edge. Dobbs then hit a three ball after an X turnover coming out of a subsequent timeout to make it 43-39 St. Edward.

"It was all about attitude," said Eagles coach Eric Flannery of his team's turnaround. "It was all about intensity."

Only a Ryan Shiverdecker (9 points) three with 36 seconds in the quarter helped St. X salvage an otherwise disastrous quarter that ended with them trailing 43-42.

Brad Loesing chipped in 17 for the Bombers.

"We ran into an offensive juggernaut in the second half," said St. Xavier coach Scott Martin.

St. Xavier used a 7-0 run and a plethora of early easy looks inside to jump out to a 17-6 lead. But the Bombers were unable to score over the last 2:59 of the quarter and St. Ed closed the lead to 17-11 at the end of the first frame.

St. Edward got as close as three points at 21-18 in the second thanks to Conor Tilow's personal 5-0 run highlighted by a steal and fast break lay-up. But St. Xavier outscored the Eagles 6-0 over the final 1:46 of the half to take a 35-25 lead into the locker room. The Bombers shot 66% from the field in the first half, highlighted by Walt Gibler's perfect 4-for-4 on his way to 14 first half points.

But the second half told a different story for the Bombers.