photo by: Carter Gaskins

Seabury forward Joao Carlos Ramirez (40) shoots over Veritas forward Brennan Clements (35) in the lane. Seabury defeated Veritas 86-38 on Friday, Jan. 17.

Bishop Seabury needed two buzzer beaters to win both meetings with Veritas last year. This time around, there was no reason to sweat out the first installment of the private school version of the City Showdown.

The Seahawks, who are ranked No. 1 in Class 2A, demonstrated their dominance from the opening tip on both ends of the floor. Bishop Seabury knocked down an abundance of 3-pointers against a zone defense, while using a pressure defense to wreak havoc and create opportunities in transition.

All of that culminated in an 86-38 win over Veritas, as Bishop Seabury improved to 6-0 to start the season. It is the fifth game in a row that BSA has won by double digits, which included a 79-29 home victory over Midland Adventist Academy just one night before its lopsided win over VCS on Friday at Haskell Indian Nations University.

“We’ve had a lot of practice time to get after it and work on things,” BSA head coach Jonathan Raney said. “We are finally playing some games and get to test ourselves against some good competition. As I told them, we can’t be satisfied. We haven’t accomplished anything.”

Bishop Seabury now has an average margin of victory of 34.8 points this season, which now includes four wins by at least 40 points.

It didn’t take long for the Seahawks to assert their dominance in a makeup meeting with Veritas, which was originally scheduled to take place a week ago. Senior Cobe Green drilled a 3-pointer within the game’s first minute, giving Bishop Seabury a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

After each made basket, the Seahawks jumped into a full-court pressure defense. It caused the Eagles (6-8) problems, especially early on when they coughed up seven turnovers in the first quarter alone.

“The game was over at the end of the first quarter,” VCS head coach Carl Huslig said. “That first quarter, too many times we tried to press the offense. They are really good about getting out, and as soon as that happened, we were going to be running downhill.”

That pressure defense allowed BSA to get easy buckets in transition, and the flood gates opened soon after that. Green, junior Zach Bloch, junior Stavian Jones, senior Luke Hornberger and sophomore Joao Carlos Ramirez all contributed to a 22-point effort in the first quarter.

At the same time, the Seahawks only allowed two baskets in the entire opening quarter. Jones put the finishing touches on a convincing start with a 3-pointer at the buzzer, giving the visitors a 22-5 advantage after one frame.

“I challenge them to not look at the scoreboard and not look at the opponent,” Raney said. “We need to take each game seriously. We are going to play some really good (teams) coming up. So we need to have the mentality to not be afraid to go out there and work hard and play our game.”

Bishop Seabury continued to cause problems with its pressure defense by forcing seven more turnovers in the second period. The Eagles finished with 25 turnovers in the loss.

On the offensive end, Bishop Seabury used a balanced attack en route to another convincing performance. Four players finished in double figures, led by a 29-point showing from Jones. Bloch scored 14, Green added 12 and Ramirez finished with 10.

BSA led by a 49-11 margin at the intermission, though plenty of reserves got meaningful minutes in the second half. Freshman Enzo Karam managed to draw a charge late in the game, and was one of nine players to score for the Seahawks in the win.

Brennan Clements finished with a team-high 12 points for Veritas. Will Rau added 11 points for the Eagles in a losing effort.

“We will get better,” Huslig said. “We talked at halftime, we obviously weren’t going to win the game, we just wanted to put the effort out. We thought they played with more energy.”

Both teams will compete in tournaments next week. Bishop Seabury will head to Baldwin, while Veritas will be in action at McLouth High School.

“We have a big week next week where we will really be tested and face some adversity,” Raney said. “We will see exactly where we are at.”

Seabury (86)

Stavian Jones 12-19 1-1 29, Zach Bloch 6-13 0-0 14, Cobe Green 5-9 1-1 12, Joao Carlos Ramirez 4-8 2-3 10, Luke Hornberger 3-5 1-2 7, Sam Hertzog 2-4 0-0 6, Sam Bayliss 2-4 0-0 4, Enzo Karam 1-3 0-0 2, Jett French 1-2 0-0 2, Gobind Singh 0-1 0-0 0, Cameren Green 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 36-69 5-9 86.

Veritas (38)

Brennan Clements 6-7 0-2 12, Will Rau 4-18 2-3 11, Lawson Ream 2-2 2-2 7, Will Bartkoski 2-7 1-2 5, Ethan Bernet 1-2 0-0 2, Calvin Clements 0-2 1-4 1, Aden-Jay Baker 0-4 0-0 0, Grady Stegall 0-1 0-0 0, Abel Brackenhoff 0-0 0-0 0, Ben Hansen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-43 6-13 38.

Seabury 22 27 23 14 — 86

Veritas 5 6 19 8 — 38

3-point field goals: Seabury 9-22 (Jones, Cobe Green, Bloch, Hertzog); Veritas 2-10 (Ream, Rau). Turnovers: Seabury 7, Veritas 21.