The first try was the charm.
In their first game playing in the Joe Machens Great 8 Tournament the Fatima Comets ran away to a 62-41 win against the Oxford, Miss., Chargers on Wednesday.
The Chargers took a lead after one quarter at Fleming Fieldhouse, but the Comets came back to take a one-point lead into halftime. Out of the break, the Comets got running.
Nate Brandt hit a free throw to start the third, one of his game-high 21 points, then missed the back end of two tries, allowing Levi Robinson to grab the board. Robinson then scored off an in-bounds pass from Brandt to give the Comets three points in the first 25 seconds of the third.
Two minutes later, Matthew Robertson took a defensive rebound coast to coast for a layup, then Brandt drove for an athletic finish at the rim before turning a steal into a putback layup, giving the Comets a 35-25 lead.
The run continued when Robinson hit a free throw, then Robertson dished an assist to Easton Haslag for a layup and Brandt connected on two free throws to give Fatima a 14-0 run to start the quarter.
“I thought their vision was good after rebounding,” Fatima coach Ryan Robertson said. “They were seeing each other and finding their buddies.”
Gallery: Fatima Boys Basketball vs. Oxford, Miss.
Oxford was able to break the streak when DJ Davis scored on a putback attempt, two of his team-high nine points, then Jackson Myatt connected on a deep left-wing 3, but the Comets ran away with a 13-0 run with all but two points coming in transition. Three consecutive scores came on defensive rebounds that were turned into assists with deep passes down the court.
“Assistant coach Ethan Williams brought it up at halftime,” Robertson said. “When a team takes long 3s like that, you’ve got to make them pay in transition. So we said, ‘If you can get a rebound on those long 3s,’ and those were a lot of race rebounds on those shots, ‘Get it and throw it up the floor.’ We didn’t run much half-court offense in the third, we were getting it, throwing it ahead and finishing.”
Davis connected on a floater at the buzzer to cut Fatima’s lead to 53-32 after the third quarter.
With both teams slowing down in the fourth, Brandt scored six consecutive points for the Comets with four coming on free throws, covering five minutes and holding Fatima’s lead around 20 points the whole way.
Oxford started the game with hot shooting, connecting on four of its first six 3s to jump ahead as far as 13-6 after a Davis 3 from far past the top of the key.
“If teams shoot it from 26 feet that are that athletic, we’re gonna have a big issue,” Robertson said. “We can’t stay with those guys at 26 feet and let them go by us, so we decided to keep them out of the paint and if they make them, they make them. They hit four early, we thought they would cool off and they did, which helped. That’s hard to guard when a team is that athletic and can shoot from that far.”
Fatima ended the quarter on a 7-2 run after Cooper Kleffner dished one of his game-high four assists to Brandt on a backdoor cut for a layup, then Robinson hit two free throws for two of his 19 points before Brandt tossed a high-arcing pass to Kleffner with two seconds on the clock, allowing Kleffner to shoot a long 3 from the left wing for a buzzer beater, cutting Oxford’s lead to 20-17 after one quarter.
Fatima came back to tie at 20 early in the second quarter after Robinson turned one of his seven rebounds into a putback layup, then hit one of two free throws with 6:31 left.
Fatima’s defense held Oxford to only a Miles Luber 3 and an Adam Tyson Jr. spinning, short jumper in the paint for a five-point second quarter, while adding six points in the final three minutes to take a 26-25 lead into halftime.
“I thought we guarded well,” Robertson said. “(Oxford) has two elite players and I thought our guys did a good job … I think (Davis) had nine points and he’s averaging 22, that’s the game. We also did a good job keeping them off the glass, we rebounded well.”
Along with his scoring output, Brandt registered a double-double with 10 rebounds to complement three assists and three steals. Matthew Robertson brought down nine rebounds and dished out three assists for Fatima, while Haslag had 12 points.
Fatima connected on 23-of-41 (56.1 percent) of its overall shots, but only 1-of-13 (7.7 percent) from 3 while hitting 15-of-22 (68.2 percent) from the free- throw line.
Davis added five rebounds to his scoring for Oxford, while Luber had six points and seven rebounds and Tyson had six points and six rebounds.
Oxford hit 16-of-54 (29.6 percent) of its tries from the field, 7-of-32 (21.9 percent) from 3 and hit both its free throw tries.
With the win, Fatima (6-3) moves into today’s semifinal against Helias at 8:30 p.m. The Crusaders beat Lausanne, Tenn., 45-44 to move into the semifinal. With the loss, Oxford (10-5) will play Lausanne at 4 p.m.
“This is new for us, three games in three days,” Robertson said. “That extra four hours is gonna help. We’re gonna have some tired kids, they played most of the game. We’re gonna have to find a way to hydrate, rest and take some naps tomorrow.”