Saint Stephen’s boys basketball’s offense stalls in district semis against Sarasota Christian

For seven minutes Tuesday in the Class 3A-District 5 semifinals, Saint Stephen’s offense floundered. The Falcons scored only once during the first seven minutes — a single free throw, and even that took the Falcons more than five minutes to find — before Cade Westberry finally managed to follow his own miss and force a layup over the rim.

The seven-minute drought was Saint Stephen’s worst, but not by much. The Falcons had two other five-minute field-goal droughts to start the third and fourth quarters at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School’s Hoagland Arena. With the season on the line, the Falcons’ offense stalled too often and they fell to Sarasota Christian, 49-42, in the Class 3A-District 5 semifinals.

“We really had a hard time getting into our offense at any point in time,” head coach Dave Ruemenapp said. “We just never really settled into a flow.”

While the Falcons’ season ends with the loss, the Blazers advance to the Class 3A-5 championship Friday against Out-of-Door Academy in Bradenton. Sarasota Christian is also guaranteed a spot in the Class 3A-Region 3 semifinals next week.

“We’ve had a couple bad quarters that have been the margin,” Blazers head coach Kevin Landham said of his previous meetings with Out-of-Door this season. “I think my guys will be ready. They’ll be ready for the challenge.”

Even with its offense stalling, Saint Stephen’s (12-12) managed to hang around by controlling the tempo. The Falcons play slow, low-scoring games even when they’re winning and they forced Sarasota Christian (17-8) to play its pace Tuesday.

The Blazers only led 10-3 after the first quarter and despite building its lead as large as 13 during the second quarter, Saint Stephen’s kept it close enough to use one surge to keep the game competitive throughout.

“This is the third time we played these guys and every game is extremely ugly,” Landham said. “You’ve just got to find a way to win the ugly game.”

Saint Stephen’s closed the second quarter on a 10-2 run with guard Jordon Murrell dropping in seven to slice Sarasota Christian’s 13-point edge to five entering halftime. The Blazers didn’t get their lead back to 13 until the fourth quarter and even then it was only for a minute.

Murrell finished with a game-high 18 points, and Westberry added a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Otherwise, the Falcons struggled with Sarasota Christian’s lanky lineup, which typically includes a pair of post players.

“We didn’t adjust well to it tonight,” Ruemenapp said. “We needed to move the ball more and screen more and we just went right at them and I don’t think that was the way to play it.”

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Saint Stephen’s boys basketball’s offense stalls in district semis against Sarasota Christian."