Fri, Dec 26, 2014 @ Saint Louis

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Roosevelt

42

Saint Louis

52

Final	1	2	3	4
Roosevelt (10-13, 10-13)	12	15	6	9	42
Saint Louis (15-9, 15-9)	13	7	17	15	52

SEASON LEADERS

Jimmy Nunuha III 12.5 ppg  7 3pm  65.9 FT%

Kevin Foster 17.2 ppg  14 3pm  74.3 FT%

Saint Louis' Chris Sykes puts up a shot in the post against Roosevelt. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Saint Louis' Chris Sykes puts up a shot in the post against Roosevelt. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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The aftereffects of the Christmas holiday were evident for the Saint Louis basketball team for one half Friday.

Luckily for the Crusaders it came in the first two quarters in their 52-42 over Roosevelt in the final game of the opening day of the Walter Wong Invitational at McCabe Gymnasium.

Jimmy Nunuha and Chris Sykes scored 12 points apiece to lead No. 7 Saint Louis to their second straight win and third in fourth games. The Crusaders (8-2) notched their second win of the preseason over the Rough Riders (4-5), who suffered their fourth loss in five games.

Saint Louis held a narrow 13-12 lead after the first quarter, but were outscored by Roosevelt 15-7 in the second quarter.

The Rough Riders closed out the first half on a 7-0 run, capped by Jake Kawasaki's 3-pointer, to take a 27-20 lead into halftime.

"The talk during halftime was that we weren't mentally ready to play today," Crusaders' coach Keith Spencer said. "We were making mistakes that was hurting ourselves and so I just talked to them about that. I said, 'Guys, we're too good of a team to come out and play like how we were playing.' "

Spencer inserted Sykes, a 6-foot-3 freshman forward, into the lineup to start the second half and he responded instantly with eight points in the period.

"I saw the (size) advantage we had inside and I saw that in the first half he was actually playing pretty well, so that's why I started him in the second half and I wanted to just roll with that and he did a good job with that," Spencer said.

Saint Louis outscored Roosevelt, 17 to 6, in the third period and 32 to 15 for the second half.

"We only scored 20 points in the first half and that's not acceptable and it all came from mindset and not being ready to play," Spencer said. "I challenged them to come out and win this game and told them that it's going to come down to defense and that's what happened; We started playing better defense."

The Crusaders led by as many as 14 points with 3:15 to play on Nunuha's basket off an assist from Ihaka Johnson to make the score 50-36.

"I think they're on vacation-mode right now, so that's the biggest concern in this kind of tournament because they're not in their routine, they're not waking up like they normally do for school, they're getting up later than usual and I've got to keep reminding them about that," Spencer said.

Roosevelt's leading scorer, Kevin Foster, was hampered by some foul trouble in the first half, but still managed a team-high 12 points. Valen Inaura added 11 points for the Rough Riders, who take on Damien at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Saint Louis will meet Zhejiang (China) in the 5 p.m. game.

The Crusaders also beat the Rough Riders back on Dec. 6, 68-49.

In other Walter Wong Invitational games Saturday, Kapolei meets University High at 12:30 p.m. and No. 6 McKinley faces off with Leilehua Saturday.