By Stephen Pianovich
Archbishop Carroll got to practice on Sunday and Monday despite the weekend’s enormous winter storm. So the team could not use rust as a reason for its slow start.
Luckily for the Patriots, they had one player who was anxious to get back on the court after Friday night’s loss to Neumann-Goretti, and he played like it from the opening tip.
Senior point guard Josh Sharkey scored 28 points – including all seven of Carroll’s in the first quarter – as his team shook off a bad start to pull away from La Salle for a 66-52 win in Catholic League play. The win kept the Patriots in sole possession of second place in the league at 8-1, while the Explorers fell to 6-3.
On their home court, the Patriots could not buy a bucket early. They made just one of their first 12 shots (a Sharkey 3-pointer), and found themselves trailing, 10-3, five minutes into the game. Out of a timeout, Sharkey came up with a few steals toward the end of the quarter and four more points to cut the deficit to 12-7. In the second quarter he and Carroll started running more, got better looks and had the halftime lead.