Lack of tempo dooms St. Michael

The St. Michael Cardinals boys' season came to an end at the 1A state tournament when they fell to Valley Lutheran, 69-48, in the semifinals.

The loss on Feb. 19 at Tim's Toyota Center wiped out any dreams of a state championship.

"It was a tough loss. They're a good team," St. Michael head coach Bill McLaughlin said. "They're a seasoned team. I just think that we never really got into our game.

"I thought we were well rested coming into this game. We just have to give our hats off to Valley Lutheran and they did a good job against us," McLaughlin said.

The Cardinals can only use the loss and the state tournament as a learning lesson for next year.

"We were 22-5 this year and we got the wins to get this far," McLaughlin said. "We're only losing two seniors and we get everybody back. We'll take this experience and go to work. We have the opportunity to get back here next year.

"We'll take this learning experience from this whole state tournament and just build on it and hopefully next year we'll be back here," McLaughlin said.

For St. Michael junior guard Kurtis Silversmith, the loss was more personal.

"We wanted it bad. We wanted it for the seniors," Silversmith said. "We had it. They just made shots, their whole team, their subs. I thought we got a little scared. We just stopped pressing.

"Next year, we just want to win state. We want it bad," Silversmith said. "There's just no other thoughts."

It was a match-up of different styles between the two schools. St. Michael likes the up-tempo game while Valley Lutheran likes a slow pace.

"I thought we matched up real well," McLaughlin said. "They weren't very big and they had quick guards. I knew they were going to run a bit of a zone defense.

"We started out slow in the first half," he said. "We could never get the tempo going. They did a good job in transition. They got back on defense and that really slowed us down.

"Once we started making our shots, they closed their zone on us," Mclaughlin said.

St. Michael's leaders and captains, Silversmith and Samuel Hardy, were shut down and McLaughlin said he needed more from his other players.

"You know, Kurtis is always everybody's focus. He has the ability to make everybody play better," McLaughlin said. "I felt that I needed to have other guys step up and make some shots besides Kurtis and Samuel. I know that Samuel struggled, but they did a good job defending him."

Silversmith finished with 16 points and Hardy with 10. TyWray Hardy scored 11 points.

St. Michael was held to four three-pointers, two from Hardy. St. Michael also was held to 12 free-throw attempts in the game, most coming from Silversmith. He connected on eight of 10, while Samuel Hardy was 0-2.

St. Michael had the lead at the end of the first quarter, 11-10. The score was tied 25-25 at halftime.

Valley Lutheran controlled the boards and only allowed St. Michael one shot per possession in the second half.

St. Michael started out slow as Valley Lutheran began pulling away and finally took a commanding lead at the end of the third quarter, 46-38.

In the final quarter, Valley Lutheran stretched their lead to double figures and St. Michael continued to struggle. Silversmith did his best to keep his team in the game before fouling out with 1:07 left.

St. Michael was outscored 23-10 to end the game. Silversmith scored eight of the team's 10 fourth-quarter points.

"They're a good team and they shoot the ball well. They did a good job," McLaughlin said about Valley Lutheran. "We had some lapse on defense and we didn't do what we wanted to do today."

On Feb. 20, Valley Christian lost the state championship game against Gilbert Christian, 51-34.

Back to top ^