By John Skinner
The St. Monica basketball team went up against some stiff competition in the St. Monica Tournament on Wednesday night. Despite Spencer Gorman having a career night, the Mariners (2-2) were defeated 74-66 by University High Wildcats. Gorman led all scorers on the night with 23 points. He also had 14 rebounds. Both career highs.
University was led by Darnell Bettis. Bettis scored 22 points, while C.J. Sinada added 16 and Caleb LaAnyane putting up another 14. St. Monica also got contributions from Kavin Dotson and Kaivon Simab, each scoring 15 points. St. Monica jumped out to an 18-13 lead in the first quarter and was paced by Gorman’s eight points.
University’s CJ Sinada got hot from downtown and scored 10 points in the second quarter to help University take a 32-27 lead before going into halftime. St. Monica played a sloppy third quarter. Coupled with Gorman getting into foul trouble, University increased its lead to 20 points and were up 17 (54-37) at the end of the third quarter.
St. Monica made a nice comeback and cut the University’s lead down to five points, but they couldn’t get closer. Dotson scored 10 points in the final quarter to help close the gap. Unfortunately, for the Mariners, Bettis kept University afloat with eight points during St. Monica’s comeback attempt.
Gorman also had three blocked shots in the game.
