Published: February 04, 2007 12:40 am         

Westbury claims national division title

Catalin Baciu got his points. Westbury Christian got the win.

Baciu, Veritas Christian’s 7-foot-1 center, accounted for over half his team’s offense. But Westbury used its decided depth advantage to take a 66-49 win Saturday for the national division championship at the Mountain State Coal Classic.

Baciu scored a game-high 26 points, including four dunks among his 11-of-17 shooting night. But he and teammates Aleks Spasovski and Jonathan Ellington played all 32 minutes, while Johan Baize and Paulius Skema played 25.

“We felt like fatigue would become a factor,” Westbury coach Greg Glenn.

He was right. While the Warriors sent just eight players to the floor, Westbury played 12.

“We are basically five (players) deep,” Veritas coach John Jordan said. “They were able to rotate guys in and keep them fresh.”

Behind Baciu, Veritas (17-9) looked to be in control early. The Warriors led 15-10 with 6:32 left in the second quarter, and Baciu had 11 of the 15.

But Veritas didn’t score again over the next 6:30, and the Wildcats took advantage.

Westbury (19-14) went on a 17-0 run to turn a five-point deficit into a 27-15 lead. The run was capped by a Skooter Lewis three-pointer with 33 seconds to play in the half.

Baize completed a three-point play with 2.2 seconds remaining for Veritas to make it 27-18 at halftime.

Veritas committed 12 turnovers in the first half, most of them during Westbury’s stretch.

“We knew (Baciu) and (Ellington) were two players we were really going to have to pay special attention to,” Glenn said. “I really think the turning point of the game was the defense of Dwight Miller on (Baciu) and Skooter Lewis on (Ellington).”

Ellington, who had 31 and 24 points in Veritas’ first two games of the tournament, scored just six against Westbury. He was 2-of-15 from the floor.

“(Baciu) was doubled and tripled, and we were giving him bad passes and he still found a way to (play well),” Jordan said.

Jeff Francis led Westbury with 18 points. Kevin Perry had 14 points and seven rebounds and Miller scored 12.



Veritas Christian (17-9)

Aleks Spasovski 1-4 1-2 3, Catalin Baciu 11-17 4-4 26, Jonathan Ellington 2-15 0-0 6, Johan Baize 2-4 1-1 6, Paulius Skema 3-11 2-2 8, Vasili Katsadouras 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Ellington 0-0 0-0 0, Patrick Narron 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 19-52 8-9 49.

Westbury Christian (19-14)

Rye Olson 1-10 3-4 6, Kevin Perry 5-10 4-6 14, Jeff Francis 8-9 2-4 18, Skooter Lewis 3-10 1-2 8, Dwight Miller 5-8 2-2 12, Willie Turner 0-0 0-0 0, Gavin Lyman 0-0 4-4 4, Richard Glenn 0-0 0-2 0, Luis Rojas 0-0 0-0 0, Arturo Prieto 2-6 0-2 4, Ryan Keenan 0-0 0-0 0, Edwardo Mancilla 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 24-53 16-26 66.

V 11 7 16 15 — 49

W 10 17 18 21 — 66

Three-point goals: V: 3-13 (Spasovski 0-3, Ellington 2-4, Baize 1-3, Skema 0-2, Narron 0-1); W: 2-15 (Olson 1-10, Perry 0-1, Lewis 1-4); Fouled out: none.