The Irish forced 21 turnovers – 14 of them steals – and turned them into 30 points. The stat sheet also shows 54 points in the paint and 42 fast-break points. The Knights (25-3) had seen pressure this season, most recently in the regional final against Cincinnati Woodward. But the SVSM pressure in the full court and the half court was something you can’t replicate in practice.
“It’s everything,” Alter coach Eric Coulter said. “It’s a physicality issue. They’re strong, they’re big, they’re athletic, they’re a perfect five to have on the floor, because they’ve got a rim protector, and they’ve got guys that can really pressure the basketball.”
The Irish (22-4) will apply that same pressure on Sunday in the 2 p.m. final against the winner of Friday night’s second semifinal between Waverly (23-4) and Gates Mills Gilmour Academy (22-5).
Alter senior Jacob Conner, whose next game will be at Marshall University, played AAU ball with SVSM star guard Sencire Harris (Illinois) this past summer. As Harris left the postgame news conference area and Conner was coming in, the friends shared a hug.
“He came over and said, ‘Congrats on a great season,’” Conner said. “I told him to go win the thing.”
Conner, as he has throughout his career, left his imprint on the game despite only scoring five points. He blocked eight shots, grabbed nine rebounds and had six assists.
“It was great playing against him,” Harris said. “He’s an excellent teammate and hopefully he’ll do good things at Marshall. I’m proud of him, proud of how he fought and how he played.”
Alter jumped out to a 10-2 lead behind two Anthony Ruffolo 3-pointers. Conner altered four shots near the basket and got his first two blocks. But SVSM chipped away with its defense and patience to get inside on Alter’s defense. The Knights led 17-14 with five minutes left in the half, but from there they only executed their offense well in spurts.
“We kind of played outside of ourselves a little bit, we tried to do a little bit too much with the ball instead of trying to play our normal game where we move the ball side to side and, and it cost us,” Coulter said. “They’re kids so they get frustrated, and their heads go down. As much as we’ve had composure in our tournament run and the season, we didn’t have composure tonight.”
The turnovers and layups and dunks began at the other end as the Irish used a 13-2 run to close the half up 27-19. Alter committed nine turnovers in the half and the Irish turned them into 12 points.
Half-court defense, with Conner blocking shots and the Knights cutting off driving lanes, was a positive for the Knights. Despite the rush of layups at times, especially in the final minutes of a 26-point fourth quarter, the Irish shot 47.6% and made 3 of 9 3-pointers. At times, when the turnovers and layups and came in waves, it felt as if the Irish never missed.
“We came out especially good early,” Conner said. “We had a lot of really good energy, getting a lot of deflections, block shots. When they were missing shots, we were getting the rebounds, having communication. We were doing all the little things that we needed to do to.”
Anthony Ruffolo and A.J. Leen led Alter with 13 points apiece and Ryan Chew added 10. Ramar Pryor lead SVSM with 23 points and Harris scored 18.
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