Red Devils are solid in beating Beaumont
Paul Kopsky/STLhighschoolSPORTS.com | Beaumont's Gerald Floyd (left) tries to block a shot down low by Chaminade's Giovanni Ferrara (33) late in Monday's game at Gateway Tech.
As Bluejackets put focus on stopping Beal, others rise to the occasion.
This year’s Chaminade basketball team, after losing three key players from last season, doesn’t have the same look and feel as the Red Devils squad that captured the Missouri Class 5 championship a year ago.
But slowly but surely, this Chaminade team is getting better.
On Monday night, against a Beaumont team that gave the Red Devils fits last season, Chaminade was able to piece together a convincing 65-52 nonconference victory at Gateway Tech High School behind strong efforts from its top three juniors.
“People are starting to buy into the system,” said junior forward Brendan Kelly, who scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the first half. “If all five of us have a good game every single game, we’ll be pretty good.”
Chaminade, which is ranked fifth in the Post-Dispatch large-school rankings, has now won seven straight games to improve to 18-5.
The Red Devils, who clinched a share of their fourth consecutive Metro Catholic Conference championship Friday, got 21 points and a team-high nine rebounds from junior guard Bradley Beal and 13 points from junior guard Luke Bumgarner.
Beaumont, which went 10-15 a year ago, fell to 13-6 on the season but is currently sitting atop the Public High League standings. The Bluejackets had three players in double figures Monday — Jimmy Johnson had 24, Devonta Pargo scored 12 and Montez Stewart added 10 — and gave the Red Devils a tough fight.
Chaminade led 18-10 after one quarter, but Beaumont outscored the visitors 23-18 in the second quarter and trailed by three points, 36-33, at halftime.
But the second half belonged to the defending state champions, who struggled in a 75-72 victory over Beaumont a year ago.
Using a stingy defense and doing a good job on the boards that limited second-chance opportunities, the Red Devils outscored the Bluejackets 29-19 over the final 16 minutes to pull away for the victory.
“I thought in the second half we played better defense,” Chaminade coach Kelvin Lee said. “We held them to 12 points in the third quarter and then seven in the fourth quarter. We rebounded the ball better. That was the key.”
Beaumont coach Richard Hamilton said his team was focused on slowing down Beal, who scored 39 points against the Bluejackets a year ago.
“We had to focus a lot of our attention on Beal,” Hamilton said. “Some of the other guys stepped up and had good games.”
