CUMBERLAND — Bishop Walsh opened Thursday’s game with 10 unanswered points, but the Spartans (4-13) offense went cold and never recovered.
Johnstown Christian hung around, and made two key plays in the final 10 seconds to stun the Spartans, 32-30.
“It was a tough game,” Johnstown Christian head coach Andrew Taylor said. “Bishop Walsh is a tough team to play. I’m just glad we came and we played as well as we played.”
Tied at 30 with 9.7 seconds to play, Matthew Blough hit a jumper off an assist from Jeremiah Taylor.
Blough tied Dijon Coleman and Toney Richard for a team-high with seven points.
Coleman added three steals while Richard had three steals and a block.
Bishop Walsh called a timeout, and Blough came up with a steal to ice it for the Blue Jays (5-12).
“They did well, they listened to what I had to say,” Taylor said. “They did exactly what I asked them to.”
Johnstown Christian trailed from the start of the game, and didn’t take the lead until Blough’s shot.
The Spartans opened with a 10-0 run led by six points from Michael Caporale.
“Started off well, and then kind of let our foot off the gas,” Bishop Walsh head coach Ryan Mattingly said. “They found a way to get back in the game and get a chance to take the lead. This is a tough one.”
Caporale and Carson Hamelin each scored eight points.
Hamelin added seven assists and four steals while Caporale added three steals.
Bishop Walsh led 14-4 after one, scoring 11 points off eight turnovers.
“I was happy with the defense,” Mattingly said. “I felt early on, our press did a good job forcing turnovers. Then I don’t know if they necessarily figured it out, but they started to get it across half court and were able to do some things.”
Over the next three quarters, the story of the game became the lack of offense on both ends.
In the first half, Bishop Walsh shot 7 of 33 (21%) from the field and only made one of 11 triples (9%).
The Spartans also struggled with free throws, shooting 7 of 22 (32%).
I think we were trying to shoot too many 3s,” Mattingly said. “We just weren’t hitting them, and we just couldn’t get the shots to fall that we were getting in the paint. We would get fouled on some of those, but couldn’t take advantage at the free-throw line.”
Johnstown Christian went 4 of 25 (16%) from the field and missed all 10 3-pointers.
“It was just an off night,” Taylor said. “We hit our shots when we needed to. We played defense better in the second half, and our defense held them to one shot (per possession). That helped us because they weren’t making their first shot.”
The Spartans led 19-11 at halftime and 26-22 after three, despite leading 21-11 early in the third quarter.
Bishop Walsh’s biggest lead in the fourth quarter was five points at 30-25.
Jackson Miller led both teams with nine points, adding a steal and a block for the Spartans.
Bishop Walsh hosts Faith on Friday before hosting Paw Paw (4-8) on Wednesday at 7 p.m.