St. Peter’s Wins with a Proven Formula: Good Defense

St. Peter's coach John Dunne and Chris Prescott meet the media

Jersey City, NJ- They took the Yanitelli Center Floor with a 1-4 record. The defensive efficiency through the five games was above average at 102. In their MAAC opener on Thursday, the defending conference champion St. Peter’s gave an excellent defensive performance. The result, a 51-44 decision over Siena. St. Peter’s held the Saints to 34% shooting from the floor. Included in that was a 16.7% mark beyond the arc, where the Saints misfired with a 3 of 18 showing. Efficiency wise, the tale is told even better. In a 54 possession game, St. Peter’s limited Siena to an 82 offensive efficiency.

         A year ago St. Peter’s posted an 89 defensive efficiency in conference play. That was second behind conference leader Fairfield with 87. In the three game run to the conference post season  championship, defense had as much to do with St. Peter’s title as anything. Coach John Dunne is well aware.

     “Overall I think we played great defense tonight,” Dunne said . Regardless, the St. Peter’s mentor, very attentive to detail from his days as a Seton Hall assistant,  recalled two possessions that need to be addressed. “There was a possession where we gave up a wide open three pointer in transition that they (Siena) hit. Then there was the out of bounds play where they scored on an easy uncontested layup. We gave up only 44 points but those two particular possessions allowed five points.” It did not affect the outcome. Still, it is something that begs attention. “If you want to be an upper tier team in our league you can’t give up points that easy,” Dunne said. “The  better teams do not allow those defensive lapses.” St. Peter’s basically stayed man to man exerting a lot of ball pressure on the perimeter and contesting shots. Easy baskets were not frequent for the visitors. In fact, the only transition points for Siena were on the three pointer Dunne alluded to.

     While Dunne has a relatively young team, he realizes they have the potential to be heard from  in the MAAC. “Iona is at the top of the league,” Dunne said, “Fairfield is right behind them but after that you have a pretty wide open field. We can be right there in that group battling for the first division.”  If it comes to pass, it will be due to the effort on the defensive end.

    Chris Prescott of St. Peter’s led all scorers with 16 points. OD Anosike led Siena (2-4, 0-1 in the MAAC) with a 12 point, 10 rebound effort.

- Ray Floriani