February 10, 2022

Chat with Coach Biehl #6

by Brother Neal Golden, S.C. (CJ ’57)

"The Crusaders suffered a tough 57-51 home loss to the resurgent St. Augustine Purple Knights last Friday night. They rebounded Tuesday night with a 47-30 victory at Holy Cross that brings Martin’s record in district play to 6-4 with two games left in the second round.

St. Augustine was only 7-16 when they beat the Crusaders for the second time this season. Coach Chris Biehl says “they’re playing at a different level of intensity than a couple of weeks ago. It’s an old-fashioned neighborhood rivalry, and we always get their best effort. For us to achieve our end-of-season goals, we’ve got to look at ourselves in that game and say we’re short of where we need to be. They capitalized on our errors more so than us stopping them from doing their thing.”

The Crusaders hurt themselves by missing five free throws in the fourth quarter. “We had some momentum, up four. We go to the free-throw line for a one-and-one with a chance to go up by six, which would have been the biggest lead of the game. We missed the front end, and they knocked down a three. Then we did a good job of drawing a foul, but for the second time, we missed the front end of the one-and-one, and they took the lead. I don’t play a ton of zone defense, but our zone was extremely effective against them. But with three and a half minutes to play we’re down one, and they have the ball and are notorious for holding it at half court. I wanted to play a zone but couldn’t with them holding the ball.”

Another blow was 6’6” Ray Lotten fouling out midway through the final period. “When we lost Ray against St. Aug, their big lefty kid took over the game. We have to teach Ray how to be aggressive without fouling. He’s played only 25 varsity games in his life and had no JV experience. I’m pleased with the way he’s playing. We need him playing his best ball the next few weeks.

“From a spectator point of view, last Friday’s game against St. Aug. was an entertaining game. But the Holy Cross game was tough to watch. The field goal shooting from both schools wasn’t very good. Our team is going to have a lot of wins that are ugly. That’s the way this team is built. It’s not the way I like to coach. I love to run. My favorite thing is to let guys go out and play defense as well as you can and get down the court fast.

“We wanted to attack Holy Cross and make a statement early. We adjusted our defense a lot more than we usually do this time of year. We put Marvin Jones on their best scorers, and Marvin held him to 0-for-8 shooting. We started Jordan West for the first time in district and had him on their second best player, who was 6’1”. Jordan responded really well. Our defensive effort all in all was what I wanted. We frustrated them early on. They’re young and didn’t respond well.”

The Crusaders won despite not having Clayton Lonardo, who is still out with a high ankle sprain, and Jaeden George, who has been ill.

The Crusaders currently rank fourth in Division I according to the up-to-date rankings on the LHSAA website. The only local school ahead of Brother Martin is Archbishop Shaw, the district leader in third place in the division. John Curtis, the Crusaders’ foe Friday night, is in fifth place just 0.25 behind Martin. 

“Curtis is right on our heels. That’s why Friday’s game is so important. They have the best athletes in the district and have been playing good basketball. We did a really good job on 6’4” Laron Louis the first time we played them. He brings a level of athleticism and size we have to deal with. Buddy Taylor, their football quarterback, didn’t play a lot against us the first time but is starting for them. 8th-grader Autrail Manning hit ten threes in a game a couple of weeks ago. They play fast. I love the style of basketball they play. They’re going to be tough. They didn’t get their 20-4 record by accident.

“This is about as even a Catholic league as I can remember in all the years I’ve been in New Orleans. I still think Rummel upsets one more team. We have to make sure it’s not us next Tuesday.”

The Crusaders need the Conlin Crazies to travel to River Ridge Friday night to support the team in what Coach Biehl calls “our biggest game of the year so far.”"