By JOSEPH W. GEX II/Staff Writer

Bay St. Louis — The Saint Stanislaus Rock-A-Chaws claimed the driver’s seat in the Division 8-3A race to the division tournament with a 49-36 victory over the St. Patrick Fighting Irish on Tuesday night. The two teams battled for three full periods before the Rocks took advantage of some Irish turnovers and converted them to points in the fourth period. There were 12 lead changes in the game. 

The Rocks (13-6, 4-0) and the Irish (9-13, 2-2) battled to a 11-11 tie at the end of the first period as Liam Buchanan scored five points for the Irish and Jason Forte banked in four points for the Rocks. 

Alan Gilliam scored six points in the second period for the Rocks as they claimed a 23-21 halftime advantage.

In the third period, the two teams battled to a 29-29 tie heading into to the final frame.

David Belle put the Rocks up for good with a bucket on a nifty move in the paint with 7:42 left to give SSC a 31-29 lead. 

The Rocks went on a 10-0 run that was stopped by Brendan Moton sinking 1-of-2 free throws with 3:31 left to play and made the score 41-32. 

From there the Rocks went on an 8-4 run to close out the game house with three points each from Gilliam and Carter Macias. 

St. Patrick head coach Keith Robinson commented, “For three quarters, we played and executed well. Early in the fourth period, we rushed a few shots and they were able to take advantage of our miscues. Saint Stanislaus was better in the fourth period along with our lack of execution.”

The Irish were led by Brendan Moton with 14 points and Liam Buchanan with 11 points. 

Saint Stanislaus head coach Daniel Grieves stated, “St. Patrick is a quality program and has been for some time. It has taken us some time to turn our program in this direction. We have been training for this. In years past, we would have lost games like this. The 10th graders in the program were 7th graders when I took over. They are not afraid of hard work and that is a testament to them. I love my team. They show up to work every day and work like a blue collar team.”

The Rocks were led by Alan Gilliam with 22 points followed by Carter Macias with 10 points.