18-8 third period propels No. 5 Cavaliers, 61-41 By Pat O'Malley Sun Staff Originally published December 20, 2003 Archbishop Spalding showed it can play defense and turned a lethargic first half into a strong second half in Severn last night. The host Cavaliers forced 22 turnovers and put away St. Maria Goretti of Hagerstown, 61-41. With high-flying Rudy Gay scoring 10 of his game-high 19 points, the No. 5 Cavaliers (5-0) outscored the Gaels 18-8 in the third period on the way to taking their Baltimore Catholic League opener. Gay scored his 10 third-period points in about four minutes. The 6-foot-9, 215-pound senior started his run with a layup. He followed that with three two-handed dunks that had the fans cheering wildly, and he ended with a smooth jumper from the top of the key to give Spalding a 44-20 lead. Despite Gay's fireworks, coach Mike Glick, who won his 100th game in five years at Spalding, wanted to talk about his gifted senior's defense. "Rudy does such a great job on defense being long and getting deflections and getting his hands on a lot of balls," said Glick, whose team shot 35 percent (11-for-31) in the first half and 37 percent (24-for-65) for the game. "He keyed our run at the top of our 1-2-2 press. He did a great job defensively." Gay, who also had game-high totals of 10 rebounds (eight defensive) and four blocked shots, played a part in forcing six Gaels turnovers in the third period. "In the back [locker room], we just talked about all the things we did wrong in the [first half]," said Gay. "We just came out and tried to do the things we did wrong better. It's going to be games like that, but we just try to play every game like its our last." Junior guard Marquis Sullivan, grandson of former Baltimore Colts defensive end Roy Hilton, had 15 points, including the Cavs' last basket of the third period. Sullivan took a pass from Gay to score and give Spalding a 46-24 lead after 24 minutes. The Cavaliers have a deep backcourt led by senior Jesse Brooks to complement Gay's all-round game, and it showed last night. Brooks had only four points, but had six assists and two steals. Justin Castleberry contributed 10 points from the backcourt and Kevin Galinat had two points and a couple of steals and a couple of assists. "I like our up-tempo style, " said Castleberry, a junior transfer from DeMatha. "We push it and we share the ball. Everybody is having fun, as you saw tonight." Nine Cavs scored at least two points. Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun | Get home delivery --------------------------------------------------------------------- Junior guard Marquis Sullivan had 15 points and five assists while senior forward Rudy Gay added 19 points and nine rebounds as No.1 Spalding handled visiting St. Maria Goretti last night, 61-41. Justin Castleberry scored 10 points for the Cavaliers, who were up by up by 22 at the end of the third quarter thanks to a strong defensive effort. "I was very impressed by what we were doing defensively," Spalding coach Mike Glick said. "We were giving ourselves plenty of offensive opportunities because of our defensive efforts." Jesse Brooks dished out eight assists for Spalding in the victory. St. Maria Goretti (2-3) 8 8 8 17 _41 Spalding (5-0) 15 13 18 15 _61Spalding (61) Gay 9 1-2 19, Brooks 0 2-2 2, Castleberry 3(1) 3-3 10, Dixon 1 0-0 2, Galinat 0 2-2 2, Cornell 1 0-0 2, Sullivan 6(1) 2-2 15, Jones 2 0-0 4, John 1 0-0 2, Bisciotti 1 1-2 3. TOTALS: 24(2) 11-15 61.