St. Anthony's boys basketball responded to coach's challenge

Sal Lagano wasn’t thrilled at halftime. “Angry” was the word the St. Anthony’s coach used.

Here were the Friars playing in the CHSAA Class A state championship game at Fordham’s Rose Hill Gym on this March Saturday, and they were trailing by nine against a St. John’s Prep team they had beaten in December.

They didn’t come this far to lose on the last day of the boys basketball season, not after winning 24 of their 27 games and claiming the program’s first NSCHSAA tournament title since 2020.

So in the locker room, Lagano challenged them to be better, to make their layups, to make their foul shots, to stop with the bad turnovers, and more.

“Just simple fundamentals that we’ve been singing at them for three years,” Lagano said.

The one thing about these players was that they could handle stern coaching in the name of winning. They answered the challenges from inside and out.

St. Anthony’s pulled even in the third, then pulled away late for a 57-47 win and its first state championship since 2005.

“They saw an angry coach at halftime, but they responded,” Lagano said. “They let us coach them. They let us challenge them. A lot of these guys have been on the team for three years, and they helped set the tone for the new guys going into the future. That’s the best part about it. They’re not sensitive and they want to be pushed.”

They had already earned his respect en route to 25-3.

“Chuck Daly had a great line when he coached the ‘Bad Boys,’ ” Lagano said of those Detroit Pistons teams that took NBA championships in 1989 and 1990. “He said, ‘It was a privilege to coach them.’ ”

There were three seniors — forwards Connor Mannix and James Taylor Jr. and guard Nick Vieux — who started in the finale with two juniors — guards Kevin Moore, who scored six of his 13 in the last 3 1/2 minutes, and Steve Aulicino Jr.

Senior guard Tyheem Mills and freshman forward Ouse Ninche were the others who saw at least five minutes that day.

“Most of us have been together for four years, and the juniors that came this year just fit in perfectly,” said Taylor, who averaged 10.4 points overall and 18 over the final three postseason games. “We’re all just one unit.”

The unit lost only to Section I champ Tappan Zee, St. Dominic and Holy Trinity. The Friars shared the regular-season NSCHSAA title with St. Dominic.

But six players will be departing.

“No one’s more important than the program,” Lagano said. “So next man up.”

Moore and Aulicino, who nailed 57 threes, will try to build off a season in which they combined to average about 22 points.

Mannix, the top scorer at 14.4 and rebounder at 6.7, said, “I think the future’s bright.”

Taylor thinks so, too.

“We’ve got a lot of good underclassmen who still could do jobs,” he said. “I think they’re going to be good for another couple of years in my opinion.”