SOUTH HOLLAND | When the Seton Academy defense took the intensity up a notch in the second half of Friday night's 61-50 win over Providence Catholic, the Sting looked like a different team.
Seton Academy rode its "D" and full-court press to the win over their Chicago Catholic League South opponent, Providence.
Senior Mark Weems Jr. scored 22 for the Sting. Classmate Alex Foster scored 11, including 5 of 8 from the free throw line, and had 10 rebounds.
"We came out a little lazy," Weems said. "We hang our hats on playing defense. We know we're a good defensive team when we focus on it all the time."
The Sting (13-8, 6-1) took a one-point lead into halftime when Armahn Mooring's 3-pointer at the buzzer gave Seton the 33-32 advantage.
Seton Academy applied the full court press to start the second half and the Celtics were unable to get any type of offense going.
The Sting held Providence to only seven points the entire third quarter and 18 the second half.
"We were flat," Sting head coach Brandon Thomas said. "Honestly, I think we were flat the whole game. It's been a long week for us. But, hey, we got the win and it was an ugly win, but we got it."
In the fourth quarter, Seton was able to hold off any attempt at a late Providence rally, and the Celtics were unable to cut the Seton lead to less than five.
Weems was 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. Eron Evans scored seven and added four rebounds for the Sting while 21 of Providence's 50 points were from the 3-point line.
"Early on we wanted to press and see if we could speed things up a little bit," Thomas said. "The only problem is, when we speed teams up we know we're going to give them shots.
"And they got shots and made them."
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