So many story lines heading into this game for both teams. Guerin Catholic started out as the favorite to repeat in a wild 3A and then had a string of losses to some average teams. Then there is the whole brawl situation with Griffith. However, all of that drama just made this game that much more fun.
Griffith started out well matching Guerin Catholic early on and never letting them get out too far. They knew they were going to have to hold down Matt Holba and it would be a challenge. The lead for either team never grew bigger than six points the entire game and that didn’t come until the fourth quarter.
Christian Munson got started off with a big three pointer but then went quiet for a while. Holba started off slow but Guerin Catholic held a 1-point advantage heading into the half.
Tremell Murphy had 8 points in the first half and did well to keep pace. However, the difference maker in the later part of the game was Anthony Quintero. The Griffith guard was in the right place at the right time and did well shooting the ball. He hit four three-pointers on the day and they all came in the middle of Griffith’s runs.
Quintero’s final three came with 5:51 to go in the game to put Griffith up by two. This was in a stretch of the game where Holba was putting Guerin Catholic on his back and trying to make a run. Guerin was down 5 but Holba scored four straight points followed by a huge Christian Munson three, his first since triple since the opening points of the game.
Holba, the guy Guerin has relied upon all year, was huge down the stretch of the game. Matt had 19 points and 8 points in the second half alone. The only flaw to his game was his free throw shooting that, luckily, ended up not having an impact on the game. He made big rebound after big rebound and limited what Griffith could do.
The Lehigh commit finished with 29 points and 14 boards as well as a State Championship in 3A. This is Guerin’s 2nd State Championship in the last four years. Griffith had the odds stacked against them with the way things went down at the end of the season but they made a stellar run to get to the Championship game and gave a very good Guerin Catholic team a run for their money.
Please type in your name below to claim or create your Prep Hoops player profile.
