Final Score: Wells 73 Jesuit 58
Wells has a ton of quickness and speed.
Jacey Canalin as a facilitator gave Jesuit all sorts of problems. Usually coming off a ball screen in order to create movement, but even when doing it himself the Crusaders had to respect the threat of a blow-by layup, giving opportunities to players like Jaden Igarta and Diggy Griffin plenty of scoring opportunities directly and space to work with for creating their own shot indirectly. The Guardians are very, very young–only two seniors play major minutes–but the quickness they possess both off the dribble and on the defensive end–which can help make up for a lack of top end height–can win them a lot of games this season.
The Wells win does overshadow what was a phenomenal performance by Nico Rafalovich. There wasn’t an easy answer Wells could employ for the junior forward, which showed in the amount of second chance shots he got off his own misses. Every time Jesuit began to fall out of it, Rafalovich without fail created his own shot in acrobatic fashion to keep the game within striking distance. Jesuit has a ton of athletes to begin with, but this junior is the kind of A-tier, or potential A-tier, guy that moves a team from quarterfinalist to contender.
