SOUTH CITY • When neighboring rivals meet up, you can pretty much throw out the records. That was certainly true of the annual "Early Out" game at St. Mary's on Friday afternoon.
At least for the first three quarters.
Visiting DuBourg led midway through the second quarter. But eventually the combination of senior Jon Connelly and sophomore Josh Robinson wore down the Cavaliers, and St. Mary's cruised to a 52-37 victory.
A floating assassin, Connelly scored a game-high 27 points on nine-for-22 shooting. Robinson added 19 for St. Mary's (11-9).
DuBourg (4-15) picked up a team-high 13 points from Robbie Mard and 11 from David Hennen.
St. Mary's coach Ed Perniciaro said Connelly, who averages 22.3 points per game, was pretty pumped to play in his final "Early Out" game.
"He was jumping out of his skin," Perniciaro said. "He may not admit it, but he was probably overexcited, and he's one of the guys who got some great looks. ... His consistency ultimately proved out."
DuBourg started off the hotter team and had St. Mary's on its heels with an early 12-6 lead. But Connelly knew his experienced team would eventually settle down.
"We have a lot of new people on our team, and there was a lot of excitement, so we came out a little jittery," Connelly said. "I wasn't too concerned because I felt like we were the better team."
Connelly finished just one for five from beyond the arc, and Robinson was one for six. Though he didn't have a stellar night from the field, Connelly was satisfied with his fourth and last "Early Out" victory against their chief rival.
"We definitely don't like each other," Connelly said, with a hint of a smile. "It's just fun to play in, and it's nice to beat 'em one last time."
St. Mary's outscored the Cavaliers 19-9 in the rest of the first half, getting 17 points from Connelly and Robinson for a 26-21 lead at the break. St. Mary kept it up and was ahead 35-27 heading to the fourth.
DuBourg's Joe Carr, who finished with 10 points, hit a floater with just under four minutes remaining to trim the deficit to 42-37. But Connelly answered with his only trey and three straight foul shots to regain a 10-point lead, and the Dragons cruised the rest of the way.
DuBourg coach Bart Sullentrop said he figured Connelly would get his points and wanted his players to shut down the others. Connelly and Robinson scored all but six of the Dragons' points.
"Our focus coming in was to try and control everyone else, and we didn't control Robinson," Sullentrop said. "We wanted a match-up zone, and then we wanted to box-and-one him a little bit. Everybody box-and-ones Connelly, and we thought, he still scores. And our sophomores matched up better physically with Robinson.
"Our problem wasn't defensively. We just stopped scoring in the fourth quarter and turned it over too many times."
Perniciaro was sastisfied, except for the way his team came out in the first quarter.
"I'm a little frustrated by the start again," Perniciaro said. "We spotted Borgia a 10-0 lead (last game), battled, and lost by seven ... (DuBourg) came out ready to play, with our rivalry that's not a surprise. Our consistency defensively I think proved out in the end."
