Patience pays for Moore

ROTTERDAM — Darien Moore is the leading scorer for the Catholic Central boys’ basketball team. Through nearly seven minutes of play Friday night at Schalmont, Moore only had one shot and no points among the first 18 scored by the Crusaders. That was just fine with the freshman star.

“I just let things come to me and was being a good teammate,” Moore said. “I was trying to get my teammates open shots.”

Moore set up point guard Se’Mir Roberson on a pair of wide-open 3-pointers during the portion of the game when he had not scored. Once Moore began to put the ball in the basket, he didn’t stop as he finished with a game-high 29 points to go along with 23 points by Roberson as the Crusaders cruised to an 85-58 Colonial Council victory over the Sabres.

Schalmont coach Greg Loiacono unleashed a bevy of defensive alignments in hopes of containing a CCHS squad that scored 94 points Tuesday against Cohoes. The variety of looks briefly bothered the Crusaders (15-0 overall, 11-0 Colonial Council), ranked No. 2 in the Class B state poll.

“Schalmont ran four defenses in the first half,” CCHS coach Guy DiBacco said. “We talk about our youth all the time (with three freshman starters). Seeing a 2-3, 3-2, 1-3-1 and man defense in the first quarter can confuse. We like to play fast and loose, not always recognizing things. Once we reversed the ball, shots were available.”

CCHS led 42-25 at halftime as the Crusaders shot 58 percent (14-for-25) from the field in the opening 16 minutes, including 9-for-16 accuracy from 3-point range.

Roberson connected on four 3-pointers in the opening half and Moore tallied 11 points in the second quarter.

“Darien does a great job with letting the game come to him,” DiBacco said. “He is humble and mature beyond his grade.”

Roberson and Moore continued to help the Crusaders expand their lead in the third quarter as they combined to tally 19 of the Crusaders’ 23 points as the visitors entered the fourth quarter leading 65-40.

“We battled, and I told the guys that in the locker room afterwards,” Loiacono said. “We have guys that just got back from COVID. mono and the flu. We’ve got guys at home with sinus infections and COVID. We’re going through it. We have no excuses. They hurt us shooting and when they missed, they killed us on the glass.”

Schalmont (7-5, 5-4) entered the game coming off a win against Ichabod Crane. Isaiah Smith led the way Friday with 16 points. Curtis Brosious added 12 points and Ryan Woodrow chipped in 10 points for the Sabres.

Moore also contributed 12 rebounds, four assists and four steals to go with his 29 points. He scored 19 of his points in the middle two quarters.

“We keep trusting each other and are building that bond,” Moore said. “I think we are playing pretty well right now. We’re playing hard every day.”