St. Vincent-St. Mary Rolls Past Central Catholic 72-48 in Division II Regional Final

CANTON, Ohio- For the second straight year, Saint Vincent-Saint Mary will be heading down to Columbus next weekend.

Thanks to Jon Williams’ fifteen points and Buffalo-commit Jayvon Graves’ seventeen points, the Irish team claimed victory by defeating Central Catholic 72-48 in their Regional Final game in Canton, Ohio.

After a slow start by both teams to begin with, things picked up just a little after the sides were tied at 10 in the first quarter. At halftime, the Irish led 19-16.

To start the second half, Williams pushed the lead to double digits by hitting back to back threes. That opened the game up for the team, as they jumped out to a 15-3 run. From there, the Irish ran away.

“I told my guys keep pushing.” Coach Dru Joyce said. “It was all about scoring the basket and that was the turning point there.”

“We knew how this game was important for us.” Williams said. “This was the same school who beat me and my brother two years ago. I’ve talked about it in the locker room, so we made sure we came out here and play like we want it. We wanted to speed it up in the second half and that’s what we did because every possession counted for us.”

Jon received a text yesterday from his brother Josh, who is currently playing for the University of Akron basketball team, that gave him motivation.

“This is important”. Williams stated, referring to his brother’s text.

Jayvon Graves was also a big part of the win, as he scored fifteen of his seventeen points in the fourth quarter. Graves also added eleven rebounds in the game.

“We prepared well for this game.” Graves said. ” We knew Central was going to give it all but the second help helped us.”