Falcons sink top-ranked St. Mary’s, 70-64

Centauri High School’s Mason Claunch (12) looks to make a move to the basket in Saturday’s game against St. Mary’s Saturday in La Jara. The Falcons defeated the top-ranked Pirates 70-64 (Courier photo by Ken Hamrick).

LA JARA – The seventh-ranked Centauri High School had a formidable task at hand on Saturday as it hosted top-ranked St. Mary’s at the Falcons’ gym.

But the Falcons were more than up to the task as they downed the previously undefeated Pirates 70-64.

“Rankings are important, but the kids played hard,” said Centauri coach Larry Mortensen. “They’re not afraid of the moment and it shows that we can be pretty good. That’s a really good team that we beat. They’re well-coached and they have great players.”

Baron Holman gave the Falcons the early lead with a pair of free throws, but St. Mary’s scored seven straight points. Mason Claunch then scored five unanswered points to tie the score at 7-7 with 3:40 left in the first period.

Sam Howery came back with six consecutive points, but Claunch scored six more points to close the Pirates’ lead to 15-13 at the end of the quarter.

Kaleb Anderson split at the free throw line before Cyrus Hernandez drained a 3-point basket to give St. Mary’s an 18-14 lead. Baron Holman scored four points, and his brother, Chaz, scored two to give the Falcons the lead at 20-18.

After Howery made one of two free throws, Centauri went on a 10-2 run to take a 30-21 advantage. Howery’s trey ended the run, but Claunch scored four more points and Chaz Holman three and Centauri led 37-28 at halftime.

Howery’s layup began the scoring for the second half, but Chaz Holman and Claunch both scored to give the Falcons a double-digit lead at 41-30. Anderson scored five points and Baron Holman four to extend the Centauri lead to 50-34.

Ely Ferrara made five straight points for the Pirates, but Baron Holman ended the third with a trey and the Falcons led 53-39.

Claunch scored early in the fourth to give Centauri its largest lead of the game at 55-39.

St. Mary’s, however, showed why it was ranked first in the state as it scored 11 straight points with Howery scoring seven of them to close within 55-50. Claunch ended the rally, but Andon Mindrup scored four points and Howery two to help the Pirates reduce the Centauri lead to 57-56 with 2:35 left in the game.

But Claunch made four free throws, and Anderson scored a layup and a free throw to give the Falcons some breathing room at 64-57. Owen Barton scored for St. Mary’s, but Chaz Holman scored three points and Anderson added two to put the game out of reach.

“Baron had fouled out, but we had some kids come off the bench and they rose up and took advantage of the moment,” Mortensen said.

Four Falcons scored in double figures. Claunch led the way with 28 points which included going 10-of-14 from the free throw line. Baron Holman scored 19, followed by Anderson with 11 and Chaz Holman with 10.

Howery led St. Mary’s with 31 points and Mindrup added 14.

Centauri (9-0) will travel to Sanford on Tuesday for another battle of ranked teams.

“That’s the thing about basketball,” Mortensen said. “Just because you won one night doesn’t mean you’re going to win the next night. We have to bring it every night.”

Tip-off is at 7 p.m.

Centauri 70, St. Mary’s 64

St. Mary’s – Howery 11 8-9 31, Mindrup 6 1-5 14, Hernandez 1 0-0 3, Ferrara 3 0-1 7, Faber 2 1-2 5, Sunday 0 0-0 0, Barton 2 0-0 4, Padrnos 0 0-0 0. Total 25 10-17 64.

3-point goals – Howery 2, Ferrara 1, Hernandez 1, Mindrup 1. Total 5.

Centauri – C. Holman 3 3-5 10, Polzin 1 0-2 2, B. Holman 6 6-6 19, Claunch 9 10-14 28, Anderson 4 3-4 11, Johnson 0 0-0 0, Sowards 0 0-0 0. Total 23 22-31 70.

St. Mary’s 15 13 11 25 – 64

Centauri 13 24 16 17 – 70

Fouls – St. Mary’s 24, Centauri 18. Fouled out – Howery, Hernandez, Barton, B. Holman. Technical foul – St. Mary’s bench.