Mark Zoller Opens Eyes

Speedy Morris, the reknowned basketball coach from Philadelphia, brought his new program, St. Joseph's Prep (24-6), to the Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament in Frostburg, Maryland, last weekend. And the ex-La Salle University (and Roman Catholic H.S.) head coach came away with a big victory over Gonzaga College High School (22-9) from Washington, DC, for third place at this highly regarded event. The score at the buzzer was 74-70 as the Washington Post's 16th ranked team surprisingly with the lower score.

Much of St. Joe's success last weekend can be attributed to the strong play of Mark Zoller, a 6-5, 200 pound junior forward. Zoller was named to the All-Tournament First Team along with three prep players who are at the top of the their prep classes: DeMatha's (MD) Travis Garrison, a Maryland signee, super sophomore center Brian Johnson from Bishop O'Connell (VA) and Roanoke (VA) Catholic's top junior combo guard and a Virginia recruit, J.R. Reynolds. The fifth selectee was Nick Morales, a 6-2, 170 pound senior shooting guard from Judge Memorial High School in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Zoller recorded 14 points, including a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe, and a game-high nine rebounds. He averaged 14.7 points and 10.7 rebounds on 47.2 shooting from the floor. Zoller hit all 10 of his free throw attempts.

St. Joe's speedy 5-8 point guard, Chris Clarke, led all scorers with 19 points, including 7-for-7 from the free throw line; he also had a game-high four assists. T.J. Valerio, a 6-2, 174 pound junior, added 12 points for the victors; Valerio was only 9-for-12 from the line. These three players shot 25 of the 26 charity attempts (6-4 senior Jim Good missed the other toss).

In addition to the Hawks strong play, two double technical foul calls on Gonzaga in the second and fourth quarters played a significant role in the Eagles' loss. The Hawks' Valerio made six of the resulting eight free throws. Eagles head coach Dick Myers was less than happy with the officials in Friday night's loss when his squad was assessed with 24 fouls to Roanoke Catholic's 13. Saturday the fouls were distributed more evenly, 17 each, but those four technicals made Gonzaga's uphill climb a good deal more difficult.

St. Joe's took an early lead in the match when Clarke, who was named to the All-Tournament second team, hit a jump shot from behind the arc for the first score at the 5:39 mark of the opening period. The Hawks led 17-9 at the first break and 33-26 at the half.

Gonzaga pulled to within as two sophomores, 6-3 Antwann Harrison to 6-2 Stanley Hodge, teamed up for a traditonal three-point play with 17 seconds left in the third quarter and the score 45-44. (Harrison was named to the All-Tournament second team.)

The deficit was raised to 50-46 following Valerio's 3-for-4 technical foul shots. Harrison's strong move to the hole narrowed the margin to 50-48. Then 6-1 junior Taureen Marshall grabbed an errant St. Joe's pass and took it to the other end to tie the score (for the first time) at 50-50 with 5:00 left in the game.

Hodge scored eight straight points to bring the Eagles back within one at 59-58 with 42 seconds left on the clock. Marshall stole the inbounds pass but his drive for a bucket was negated as he was fouled before the shot by St. Joe's 6-0 sophomore John Griffin. Marshall hit both free throws to give Gonzaga its first lead of the game (60-59) with 38 seconds left.

Zoller was fouled on the next throw-in and made both ends of a one-and-one to regain the lead (61-60) after just one second had dropped off the clock. Clarke cooly hit two free throws with five seconds left (a Gonzaga timeout separated each shot) and a seemingly insurmountable 64-60 lead.

Gonzaga was lead by Hodge with 17 points and five rebounds, Harrison with 15 points and Marshall with 13 points.

Note: The Eagles were playing without senior point guard Christofer Sumner who had missed curfew Friday night. Sumner had 15 points, three assists, three steals and two rebounds in the previous evening's game. Coaches from La Salle and Lafayette were in the stands for that performance.