Osami Maciel scores 21 to lead St. Paul past Bishop Amat
St. Paul’s Osami Maciel (2) makes a shot as they play Bishop Amat in their non-league boys basketball game on Friday. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
LA PUENTE – After many years in the Camino Real League competing against Bishop Amat, the St. Paul Swordsmen found themselves in a non-league game with the Lancers Friday (December 16).
A hard-fought game by both teams resulted in a 65-57 victory by St. Paul, which was its third consecutive win over the Lancers and fifth in the last seven.
St. Paul, which will play in the Del Rey league beginning in January, was led by a game-high 21 points from sophomore guard Osami Maciel.
Senior guard Maurice Wright, Jr. added 14 for the Lancers, while sophomore center Tong Mawein and sophomore guard Moses Wright had 11 points each and junior forward Kamron Fontenot added six points.
Both Fontenot and Maurice Wright, Jr. transferred into St. Paul from Servite and Santa Clarita Christian, respectively.
The Lancers (9-4) were led by sophomore guard Eli Chavez with 19 points, while senior guard Manuel Chavez and sophomore guard Shaun Stinson scored 15 and 11 points, respectively.
“We’re playing a rival game,” St. Paul second-year coach Patrick Roy said. “But I don’t think we played well (Friday). But sometime when you get into a game that’s a rival game, the emotions get you going. Sometimes the kids stop thinking. It’s a great game to play. It’s a fun game and just happy to have the chance to come here and play and participate.
“St. Paul loves to play Bishop Amat. It’s a good game. Bishop Amat is very well coached. It’s a good rivalry.”
Entering the fourth quarter, the Swordsmen (11-3) only had a four-point, 46-42 lead, but led by as much as 11 and outscored the Lancers, 19-15 for the win.
Maurice Wright junior, Jr. and Moses Wright each scored six points in the quarter, while Osami had five points.
“We played all right, but could have done better,” Maciel said. “We came out with the dub (win). It was an ugly dub, but still won.
“But, I’m proud of the team. We had some missed assignments, turnovers, but still fought through it. Most of my teammates were on, but we got all through it together.
“It was a hostile environment, which I like. There was a lot of talking smack in the stands and loud. It’s a good game.”
St. Paul jumped out to an early lead, behind the balanced scoring of Maurice Wright, Fontenot, Mawein, Osami and Moses Wright. They combined for 12 of the 14 points. The Swordsmen led, 14-13, in a back-and-forth quarter after the opening period.
Their size advantage was a big factor early in the game.
“In the beginning we were all shooting jumpers and playing slow and in the fourth quarter, we just decided to take these guys to the rim,” Maurice Wright, Jr. said.
“It was fun and it was a good environment to play in. We played in an environment in Illinois against Washington (Illinois). So, it was really good to be in an environment like this.
“The game was all right. It was competitive. It should have been a blow-out. We were battling through the fouls.
“We won the game off of transition. What we did wrong is we had a lot of turnovers.”
The Lancers didn’t let up in the second quarter, led by the 7 of 8 free throws by Eli Chavez, but St. Paul took an 8-point lead, behind the outside shooting of Maciel. He hit the first of his four, 3-pointers. St. Paul connected with eight three-pointers in the game, while the Lancers had seven from long range. All of Manuel Chavez’ 15 points came by way of long-range shots. He hit one in the quarter.
Eli Chavez was 11 of 14 in the game from the charity line for the Lancers.
St. Paul went into halftime with a four-point, 34-30 advantage.
Amat found a way around the size advantage of the Swordsmen in the third quarter with a great deal of the rebounds.
“I thought we played really bad defense, and they were hitting us for layups,” Roy said. “I thought we did a really bad job on the defensive glass. They got about 11 or 12 of those and we’re way bigger them. But not a lot went really went well for us (Friday).”
St. Paul again held that four-point lead, 46-42, heading into the final quarter.
“We didn’t hit very many shots that we needed to,” Roy said. “But we hit enough to win. That’s a mark of a good team that can always find a way to win under adverse conditions.”
After a trip to Vegas and the Damien tournament, St. Paul begins league play at home against St. Anthony Wednesday (Jan. 4).
St. Paul in Vegas
The Swordsmen are in the midst of the Jerry Tarkanian Classic this week and opened the 136-team tourney in the 16-team Orleans Division with wins against Buckeye of Arizona (60-51) and Layton of Utah (58-54 OT).
They lost their third game Wednesday (December 21) against Crean Lutheran of Irvine (68-62). Their fourth and last game on Thursday (results not available at press time) was against Birmingham.
The Swordsmen then play in the Classic at Damien in the 16-team Diamond Division and will play Oak Park on Tuesday (Dec. 27).