No Keshaun Vaval, Marist survives St Laurence in Wednesday night thriller!

PC: Tim O'Brien on Twitter

Two young teams battled it out on Wednesday night. Marist at St Laurence with a final score of 57-55

St Laurence played mostly sophomores, all 5 starters were sophomores. Marist started freshman Stephen Brown (2 pts) , and Adonis Vassilakis came off the bench and hit 2 - 3s.

Marist jumped out to a quick 9-0 start with Mason Ross getting to the basket for some layups and Eric Lewis knocking down a 3. That lead was quickly taken away by the shooting of the Vikings.

EJ Mosley was getting smothered all game, but still found a way to get some shots up, which of course went down. He was joined by Jacob Rice and Khalil Jones who also knocked down a pair of 3s. While Zerrick Johnson mixed in a few key drives.

From there it was pretty back and forth, but the Vikings kept a comfortable lead throughout. EJ Mosley and Jacob Rice, both heated up in the 3rd quarter. Mosley knocking down long, long threes, while Rice was scoring from all 3 levels. Both sophomore guards look stronger and taller from last year, even this summer.

However, Mosley's 19 points and Rice's 18 points were not enough for the red hot 5-0 Marist RedHawks.

Senior guards Mason Ross and Kaden White controlled the game, each with 13 points. Ross is a skilled guard, with a great motor, good defense, good playmaking, and showed his scoring flashes. White is a sniper from 3, and had a nice floater. Both guards are unsigned.

RedHawks got some good contributions from seniors Eric Lewis (7 pts) , Justin Lang (7 pts), and sophomore Marquis Vance (8 pts). All 3 of these guys brought energy and toughness this team needed, including a taken charge from Vance. Lewis hit 2 threes, Vance got to the basket, and Lang has a nice midrange feel.

A lot of questions of how this RedHawks team would be after star guards Xavier Sulaiman and Leirre Collier transferred out, but they have proven, they are fine.