St. Francis Right at Home in 89-57 Win

The St. Francis High basketball team is almost as tough at home as the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Lakers are unbeaten at the Forum and Tuesday night the Golden Knights rolled to their sixth win in 7 home games, routing Alemany, 89-57, in a Del Rey League game.

“We’re playing real well at home, but I think most high school teams play well at home,” St. Francis Coach John Jordan said. “We practice here two hours every day; we should play well here.”

The Golden Knights’ only home defeat came a week ago against defending Del Rey champion Loyola, one of the top-rated teams in the Southern Section.

Against Alemany (2-12, 0-3), St. Francis started slowly, but turned the game into a runaway by halftime. The score was tied, 7-7, with 2:28 remaining in the first period, but the Golden Knights (10-6, 1-1) went on an 11-2 run in the final 2 minutes to lead, 18-9, after a period.

The lead ballooned to 25-11 in the second quarter, forcing Alemany Coach Rocky Moore to call a timeout with 6:19 remaining in the half. Moore, upset at his team’s offensive execution, yanked all but 1 starter during the timeout, but things only got worse for the Indians.

Alemany committed 5 turnovers in the next 2 1/2 minutes and was outscored, 11-2, during that span. By halftime, the Indians trailed, 49-19.

“The players weren’t doing what we asked them to do. They have to do it the coaches’ way or they come out of the game,” Moore said.

Alemany, led by Jon Beauchemin’s team-high 24 points, played more or less even with the Golden Knights in the second half, but tempers began to flare on both sides in the final minutes, and the officials stopped the game with 42 seconds remaining.

“It was getting physical and the officials weren’t controlling the game,” Moore said. “They were letting the kids play out of control.”

One who played in control was Allen Freemon, who led St. Francis with 24 points, hitting 6 3-point shots.

Jason Smith added 17 points off the bench, and Jeff Dyrek and Dominic Mumolo had 13 and 10 points, respectively.