Snowden, Pratl lead Bulldogs past Rice

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Brandon Snowden goes about his business quietly for Richards.

A basket here, another there, a defensive stop, a steal and so on.

By the end of the night, Snowden usually has done enough damage that the other team is thinking like Butch and Sundance: "Who was that guy?"

Brother Rice coach Pat Richardson knew of Snowden going into Tuesday's game at Richards, and it still didn't matter. Snowden scored 19 points to lead the defending Class 4A champion Bulldogs to a 74-52 victory over the struggling Crusaders on the D-Wade Court before about 1,000 fans in Oak Lawn.

"He's our glue," Richards coach John Chappetto said of Snowden. "He's underrated."

Snowden wasn't the only force in the Bulldogs' 13th win in 16 games this season. Center Shaun Pratl stepped up with a 17-point performance, and stepped out to do so. A pair of three-pointers from deep on the right side late in the first quarter helped open the middle for both Snowden and Keith Sconiers, who had seven points.

"That was my fault," Richardson said. "I didn't think Pratl was too good a shooter. I thought he was a kid who liked to take threes."

As a result, Pratl was all but unguarded when he left the lane, and the Crusaders paid the price.

The rout allowed Chappetto to rest his regulars for most of the fourth quarter.

It was a game completely unlike last year's showdown at Rice, which went into overtime. The Bulldogs won that by 10 points, but not before a battle. While Rice played hard this time, it was an overmatched squad.

The Crusaders are without six players Richardson had expected to have in the lineup. One, Joe Gallagher, should be back later this season. He broke the wrist on his shooting hand in the second half of Rice's season-ending football game.

Richardson won't use that as an excuse, but the revamped lineup is one reason the Crusaders are an uncharacteristic 1-12. It also doesn't help that they've had only one home game.

Then there are the miscues.

"We make unforced careless turnovers and have defensive lapses," Richardson said. "There are times we defend well, like we did against Seton. Tonight, I thought we defended (guard Dean) Danos well, and had double-teams on Pratl inside. But we don't have a defense for throwing the ball right to the other team."

Richards piled up points off turnovers all night. Almost everything went right for the Bulldogs in the first half, up to and including the last-second tip rebound of Snowden. That earned the Bulldogs a 32-19 intermission lead, and was Snowden's sixth basket in seven attempts.

The Crusaders challenged briefly. The game was tied 8-all after Dan Walsh's three-pointer with 2:48 left in the first quarter, after which the Bulldogs went on a 23-7 binge. Pratl had nine of the first 11 points in the run, Snowden 10 along the way. Not only was the tone set, the outcome was decided.