If a Chaminade student tuned into just the first five minutes of Saturday afternoon’s game against Confluence prep, he would probably be surprised to see the final score. The Titans and Korey Lawerence came out ready to roll; the junior guard had a put-back basket to give Confluence their first two points of the game, hit a sideline 3, a ten-foot jump shot and then a deep corner 3 directly in front of the Red Devil bench to force a timeout at the 2:50 mark with the score 11-10 in favor of the home team.

Whatever Coach Bennett said to his team during the timeout certainly did the trick, as Chaminade went on a 15-2 run over the last two minutes of the quarter. The key to the momentum shift was excellent three-point shooting by Nate Straughter and Damien Mayo. Straughter got the team going off the bench, sinking all three of his shots from behind the arc. Tarris Reed also added to the run, as he drained a key fade way jumper along the baseline as the first quarter came to a close.

Reed’s dominance continued into the second quarter as the big man slammed a transition dunk and hit three layups in the low post utilizing a soft touch and sturdy footwork. Back-to-back Damien Mayo threes brought the score to 42-23, and the Red Devils really started to run away with it going into halftime. Contributions on the offensive end from Nilavan Daniels and Filip Sinobad combined with a BJ Ward corner three with less then five seconds remaining on the clock brought the score to 54-29 going into the halftime break.

Chaminade utilized their big men in the third quarter as Tarris Reed and Filip Sinobad combined for 13 of CCP’s 22 third quarter points. Contrary to the first half however, Confluence Prep’s half-court offense got going. Kam Bevel had two threes and Andrew Jackson had one of his own. While Confluence wasn’t doing a great job of stopping the Red Devils’ offense, they did their best to keep up by scoring twenty-one points in the third quarter. Going into the last eight minutes of the game, it was 76-50.

Coach Bennett told his starters they would only have a minute and a half to two minutes tops in the last frame, and he kept his word. By the five-minute mark, he had pulled all five of his starters and Chaminade’s bench had their chance to add to the team total. Nate Straughter continued to light it up from behind the three-point line as he finished with six threes on the game. To end the scoring, junior center Jimmy Lansing hit a two-foot layup right under the basket to bring the final score to 101-71 in favor of the Red Devils.

Tarris Reed Jr. demonstrated why he’s a nationally ranked player by finishing the game with twenty-six points, fourteen rebounds, and two blocks. He had his way all night and was able to get anything he wanted in and around the paint. Nate Straughter finished with twenty points, a career high, and was cash from three. He has been on a shooting tear this year, as the junior guard has made 10 threes over the first three games.

Overall record: 3-0

MCC Record: 1-0

Next Game: At Cardinal Ritter at 6:30 on Wednesday December 23^rd.

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