Saturday, February 13, 1999
ST. XAVIER 76, MOELLER 51
Cornette plays the St. X star
BY CAREY HOFFMAN
Enquirer contributor
St. Xavier coach Scott Martin says his sinewy 6-foot-9 senior, Joel Cornette, has improved each of the last four games. After his performance Friday night, Cornette is going to be hard-pressed to make it five in a row.
Cornette was a dominant force on a dominant night for St. X, as the Bombers went into Moeller's gym and handed the Crusaders a 76-51 pounding.
The victory combined with LaSalle's 59-51 loss to Elder, gives St. X (11-6, 8-2) a share of the Greater Catholic League South title.
Cornette finished with 24 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists, seven steals and six blocked shots.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Cornette, who is looking like a steal for Butler University, which signed him during the early signing period. “I don't remember having a night quite like this, not in this big a situation.”
“He's a very special athlete,” Martin said of Cornette. “The last couple of weeks, he's really learned the game of basketball. There are mental parts of the game you have to be on the floor to know. He's really maturing as a player both physically and mentally.”
The same could be said of St. X. Since Cornette returned from missing three games ear lier this year with a broken bone in his right wrist, St. Xavier has gone on a 7-2 tear to reestablish itself as one of the city's top teams.
The Bombers easily broke Moeller's attempts at pressure defense most of the night, and it often resulted in easy baskets. Six times, Cornette stole the ball in the open court and led breaks that produced layups or dunks.
None was bigger than a sequence at the end of the first quarter. With Moeller down seven and holding for a final shot, Cornette stole the ball and went in for a dunk that drove the St. X student section delirious and firmly established St. X's momentum.
“Obviously Cornette was a factor,” Moeller coach Carl Kremer said. “For a big guy, he moves his feet great and he had a lot of steals that seemed to ignite them.”
Moeller, down 29-26 at halftime, came out in the third quarter and tried to engage St. X with a man defense.
“I wanted to try and guard them a little, then go back to zone,” Kremer said. “Obviously it was an ill-fated move.”
St. X outscored Moeller 12-4 in the first 3:30 after half, building the lead back to 11. The lead grew to 15 at the end of three quarters, then Cornette blew the game wide open with nine points in the first 2:30 of the fourth quarter.
Andy Larkin added 15 points and Jon Krumdieck 13 for the Bombers.
“I think this might be the highlight of our season,” Cornette said. “This just says that when we're doing the right things and playing our game, we can be awfully hard to beat.”
ST. XAVIER (76) — Callahan 1 0 3, Williams 1 0 2, Krumdieck 5 2 13, Cronin 0 2 2, Combs 1 0 3, Larsen 1 0 2, Cornette 9 6 24, Larkin 6 2 15, Keating 1 0 3, Sollmann 3 1 9. Totals: 28 14 76.
MOELLER (51) — Duncan 2 1 5, Byrnes 1 1 3, Welsch 2 0 4, Monserez 4 4 15, Hughes 2 0 4, Sylvester 1 0 2, Currin 1 0 2, Hutzel 3 4 10, Shurts 3 0 6. Totals: 19 10 51.
St. Xavier ....... 21 8 23 24—76
Moeller ....... 12 14 11 14—51
Three-point goals: SX - Krumdieck, Combs, Larkin, Keating, Sollmann 2; M - Monserez 3. Records: SX 11-6 (8-2 GCLS), M 11-6 (6-4 GCLS).
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