There certainly wasn’t the usual hype and excitement going in to Saturday night’s district playoff game between McGuinness and Classen. Rightfully so, both games were over by halftime, and neither Classen squads could find a way to keep the Irish fans interested. As the clock struck 0:00 at the end of the first half of the boy’s varsity game, fans piled out of McCarthy Gymnasium.

To start off a great Saturday for the Irish, the Lady Irish came to play early. The Classen Comets found themselves trailing 43-5 at the end of the first half. The Lady Irish were with out a doubt the better team, and Classen won’t forget this beating any time soon.

McGuinness picked off on lazy passes, snatched away the basketball, and continually went on the fast break and shoved the ball right down the throats of Classen. There was no slowing down, and the Irish finished the night with 73 points.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, the slaughter forced the “mercy rule” to come in to play, as the clock ran the entire fourth quarter to end the misery of the Lady Comets. Credit the girls and their great effort in the win. If it wasn’t for a killer defensive mindset, the Irish might have had lesser success.

However, shooting was a big area where Classen struggled. The Lady Irish tipped and blocked many attempted baskets, but most of the time the shots were off the mark by a mile, and the Comets seemed to not care after awhile. The Comets went into the game looking apathetic, and went out with a humiliating loss.

I did showed up a bit late for the game, but it seem the Irish won the game within the first few minutes. The Comets have no one to blame but themselves. The effort wasn’t there, and the Irish took advantage. The win put the girls in a match-up with Piedmont next Thursday at Heritage Hall.

That same venue will also host Piedmont and the McGuinness boys. Their game was also a blow out. It gave the Irish fans plenty of reason to leave, because the game was over by the end of the first half.

McGuinness started off a bit slow, but attacked the rim, and picked up the two point shots that fell for them. The team was aggressive down low, and defensively didn’t let Classen get any easy looks. The Irish ended the first half of play up 31-8.

I was very impressed with Caruthers who directed McGuinness on offense, the whole team as a matter of fact were able to rotate the ball well. Whether they went in or not, the Irish set up the plays very well.

Going back to the defense, the team allowed only 21 points the entire game, and the best part was that the sophomore varsity players were given most of the playing time in the fourth quarter. Those sophomores only allowed 3 in the final period, and the Irish shooting continued with the future Irish in.

The guys came to play, and things really heat up next Thursday. McGuinness continues their district playoff journey with Piedmont at Heritage Hall. You won’t want to miss the game, but if you do, you can always get live in-game updates from the IOD Twitter page.