Lafayette Fighting Irish feeling lucky in Class 4 third place contest
Mar. 17—SPRINGFIELD, Missouri — On Thursday, the Lafayette Fighting Irish fell 82-57, a game where head coach Kevin Bristol wasn't pleased with the overall effort, especially on the defensive end.
On Friday, the Fighting Irish team took the court at Hammons Student Center, and looked like the team we've witnessed in the postseason, putting away Father Tolton Regional Catholic 78-57 and solidifying themselves as the third best team in Class 4.
"It's the game that we expected to play yesterday. I'm just glad that they showed up today the team that you guys saw, the moves the ball and things of that nature, that's who we are as we are," Bristol said. "We've seen in practice and we've seen this whole play off except last night, so I'm glad that we were able to get back to what we did."
The first quarter featured a back and forth contest, with the Irish starting to pull away towards the end off some hot shooting from the entire starting five. Four players had five or more points in the first quarter alone, building a 21-14 lead.
"I mean, before we started the game, we decided to play as a team, play as a unit, be a family out there," Bristol said. "I think that we have some seniors that all season weren't going to allow us to lose games."
In the second quarter, George Galloway was back in postseason form, splashing two 3-pointers to make it four total in the half, and 12 points heading into the locker room.
Galloway would end the contest shooting 8-12 from 3-point range, and led all scorers with 26 points.
"I felt in warm ups, I already knew I was going to be making them like that," Galloway said. "I mean, last game of my career, so it really felt like I needed to do something like that, and I did."
While the Trailblazers were able to cut the lead down to one point in the second quarter, the second half was all Lafayette.
As a team, they hit six 3-pointers in the third quarter alone, with Camden Bennett leading the charge with four of his own.
Camden Bennett was the second leading scorer of the contest with 5-6 shooting from deep, ending with 21 points. Mikey Thomas was the other Irish in double figures with 12 points.
"This is, it means a lot to us. I mean, this is our last time," Bennett said. "We've all been able to grow up playing with each other. We played with each other since second, third grade, so being able to have our last time to be able to play with each other again was special."
Calvin Silvers can be reached at calvin.silvers@newspressnow.com.
