Babylon too much for Jeskie-less McGann-Mercy in 53-35 defeat

At the beginning of the season, McGann-Mercy head coach Kevin O’Halloran pointed out three key players: Nick Kneski, Kevin Santacroce and Joe Jeskie. That core would have to perform for the team to have success.

But now playing without Jeskie because of a back injury, the Monarchs (0-2, 2-4) looked one-dimensional on Tuesday against Babylon. Kneski looked as if he took it upon himself to carry the load and the Panthers had an answer for that: double him.

After Babylon (2-1, 4-2) took the lead 8-7 early in the first quarter, they never looked back en route to a 53-35 victory at McGann-Mercy High School. The Monarchs did get within eight points in the third quarter but that was as close as they would get.

“I tried everything to get some offense going, playing other guys but it just didn’t work tonight,” O’Halloran said.

Santacroce, who fouled out with three minutes left in the game had a big third quarter, scoring seven points to get the momentum going toward the Monarch’s way.

“We just need other guys to step up right now,” O’Halloran said. “They need confidence out there.”

Kneski scored a team-high 11 points to go along with four steals and three assists.

“We can’t have Nick doing all the dribbling out there,” O’Halloran said. “They just key in on him and we can’t have Keith pulling down every rebound. Other guys just need to step up.”

Michael Chiliki scored eight points for the Monarchs, most of which came in the fourth quarter.

“I was impressed with Michael today,” O’Halloran said. “We need more of that out of him.”

O’Halloran said he’s happy that winter break is coming up because there’s a lot to work on.

“We have to improve our sets,” he said. “We need to get better and healthy and hopefully we have a strong January.”

The Monarchs will play host to St. Anthony’s on December 29 at 2 p.m.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by George Faella