Bookstore Basketball XXX: Bosephus won't be overlooked this time
By KATHLEEN O'BRIEN
Senior Staff Writer
Last year, Please Call Us Bosephus took the Bookstore Basketball tournament by surprise, with the all-freshmen team going from virtual unknowns all the way to the final eight, where it lost to eventual champion Keyplay.com.
By the end of the tourney, Bosephus had earned the respect of their competitors, with Keyplay's Cas Schneller predicting Bosephus would be the team to beat the next three years. This year, No. 5 Bosephus has no such anonymity. Bosephus backed up its seed with a 21-16 victory against No. 12 seed Five Degree Guarantee Thursday.
"This is the first game where we really played as a team," Bosephus' Evan Maher said. "We really moved the ball around."
The five sophomores of Bosephus — Morrissey's Pat O'Brien and Alumni residents Maher, Brian Ostick, Jason Sullivan and Andy Bozzelli — shot their way to a 7-3 lead, with O'Brien doing the bulk of the scoring.
But Five Degree didn't give up that easily. Blake Sanz led the assault on Bosephus, scoring half his team's points.
"We got it to 11-9 and then rushed shots," said Josh Bilz of Five Degree, which also made it to the Sweet 16 a year ago. "We took a lot of perimeter shots, and didn't get it inside. I thought we had an advantage inside. We lost where our game was."
Bosephus reeled off three straight points to pull ahead 17-11. Ostick was a big key in the second half with two free throws and several field goals.
"We moved on offense the whole time," Sullivan said. "Before, we just sat around and let two people try to take over. Today everyone was playing well, cutting through lanes."
As Bosephus closed out the game, it got a little fancy. O'Brien swiped the ball from the opponent and tossed it behind his back to Sullivan, who got it to Ostick for an in-the-lane bucket. After three more Five Degree buckets, Sullivan finished the win off for Bosephus by sinking a free throw.
"We plan on being back," Bilz said. "Everyone's coming back, so we'll be back."
All Sports Stories for Friday, April 27, 2001
