The562’s coverage of St. Anthony athletics is sponsored by Jane & B.I. Mais, Class of 1948.
Every time the St. Anthony basketball team has gotten knocked down, they’ve gotten right back up.
That was the same Wednesday night in front of a packed crowd at Jack Errion Gymnasium as the Saints defeated St. Paul, 66-60, on Senior Night to win their eighth straight Del Rey League contest and clinch a share of the league title.
“It’s our Senior Night,” Donovan Pitts said. “I’m not losing, so we had to come out and win this one.”
The Swordsmen (15-11, 6-4) didn’t make it easy for the Saints as Dillon Chelsea and company went right to work as the first quarter ended with both teams knotted at 17.
In the second quarter, seniors Mikey Cortez and Donovan Pitts combined to score all 13 of the Saints’ points to give St. Anthony a 30-26 lead at halftime.
“I wanna thank God,” Mikey Cortez said after scoring a team-high 17 points. “I thank my family, I thank my teammates, coaches especially. and to all the supporters that came out.”
St. Paul came out of the gates flying in the third quarter as Chelsea scored eight points to give the Swordsmen a 49-43 lead. But at the end of the quarter, Cortez scored to cut the lead down to four heading into the final quarter.
Behind strong defensive play and timely scoring from Cortez and Pitts, the Saints (17-6, 9-2) stormed back to tie the game at 54 before pulling away for the win.
“Got to be resilient, gotta pray somebody else slips up,” St. Anthony coach Alan Mitchell said. “They slipped up and then they put the control in our hands and I just told our boys, ‘God don’t bless you too many times like this.’”
The Saints will wrap up regular season action on Monday when the team travels to take on St. Monica. A win there will give St. Anthony an outright Del Rey League championship. before they head to the CIF-SS playoffs looking to defend their title from a season ago.
