Boys Basketball: Demarcus Richardson lifts De La Salle past St Joseph

Updated: December 9, 2011 10:06PM

De La Salle junior Demarcus Richardson knows that he has a number of teammates that are going to grab most of the headlines this season.

He’s perfectly fine with that.

“I know everybody is going to talk to about our big guys (Alex Foster) and (Gavin Schilling) and Alvin (Ellis), so I just have to wait for my opportunity and take advantage of it when I get my chance,” Richardson said. “It just feels great to help our team any way I can.”

Richardson turned in an attention-worthy performance Friday to help De La Salle knock off St. Joseph 62-52 in a Catholic North contest in Westchester.

The 5-foot-8 guard scored a game-high 18 points and added five steals to spark the victory.

“Demarcus just doesn’t get tired,” White said. “He’s the Energizer Bunny out there. He’s a good floor general and can shoot the ball. We have enough horses, but we need a floor general. We say he drives our car, but he was driving a Lamborghini today.”

Richardson’s effort was timely considering Ellis picked up his second foul two minutes into the contest.

Richardson, who has drawn a lot of interest from Marquette, scored 10 of his points in the second quarter to help the Meteors (6-1, 1-1 in Catholic North) take a 25-21 lead at halftime.

He then scored five points during De La Salle’s 14-4 run to start the third quarter that increased its lead to 39-25.

“I just wanted to come out aggressive,” Richardson said. “Alvin (Ellis) was in foul trouble so I knew I had to step up my game to help us get the win. St. Joe’s is a hard place to play. The crowd was giving it to us and our coach just told us to come out and play our hardest. That’s what we came out to do and we got the W.”

St. Joseph (3-3, 1-1) staged an impressive comeback, scoring the final seven points of the third quarter and using a 9-5 spurt to start the fourth quarter and pull within 48-46 with 4:50 remaining.

De La Salle, which shot 56 percent from the field (26-for-46), scored the next six points and pulled away down the stretch.

The Meteors also received key contributions from Foster (14 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks), Ellis (15 points) and Schilling (13 points, 2 blocks), while St. Joseph was led by Paul Turner (16 points), A.J. Patty (9 points, 8 rebounds) and Karrien Simmons (10 points, 4 rebounds).

“We had a heck of a week,” White said. “We played the No. 9 team (St. Rita) and then played Farragut, which was No. 12 and then St. Joe’s was a top-15 team at the beginning of the year. We were battle tested and we weren’t going to give this game away on their court when we had control.”

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