By Kim J. Harmon

If being in the playoffs means being in tight, nail-biting situations where the game could turn on one shot, one pass, or one steal then, man, was it ever playoff time in the Rising Star Summer Basketball League on Tuesday night at Treadwell Park.

In first-round action, No. 3 St. John’s squared off against No. 6 UConn while No. 4 UMass battled No. 5 Providence and in both games it took late, second-half rallies to lead the higher-seeded teams on to victory.

In the first game, St. John’s avoided an upset by staging a 14-3, fourth-quarter run that pulled the Red Storm out of a 10-point hole and on the way to a 55-50 win.

And in the second game, UMass avoided an upset with an 11-0, third- and fourth-quarter run that erased a seven-point deficit and put the Minutemen on the way to a 52-46 win.

Talk about excitement.

Talk about thrills.

Talk about playoff action.

With their wins, the Red Storm and the Minutement were scheduled to enter the league semi-finals on Wednesday night at Treadwell Park (weather permitting) against Rhode Island and Boston College, which received the first-round byes.

The championship was slated for Thursday.

Both the semi-finals and finals, however, came after press time.

Red Storm Rally

The Red Storm may never have reached the semi-finals if not for the heroic efforts of Andrew Fiscella, who – when his unit was subbed into each quarter – virtually took control of the entire game. When Fiscella was off the court, UConn seemed to control all the action, but when Fiscella was back on it was another story entirely.

Using a variety of driving layups, inside jumpers in traffic, putbacks, and mid-range jumpers, Fiscella canned a game-high 35 points. His best plays of the night, however, may have been, one, a beautiful feed to Tim Kerr early in the deciding 14-3 run and, two, a steal of an inbounds pass and heads-up timeout call later in the fourth quarter.

He did it all.

But he also had a lot of help from the likes of Anthony Santella (two key baskets) and John Kostecki (key foul shots in the late rally). Then there was the hoop from Tom Santella and the two foul shots by Kerr, which salted the game away with three seconds left to play.

Of course, it helped the Red Storm quite a bit that the Huskies were undermanned all night. Even undermanned, though, valiant efforts by Troy Simek, Ross Coates, Pat Keating, Josh Rouse, Wes Steinfeld, and CJ Nitkowski nearly allowed the Huskies to pull this one off.

The Red Storm opened the game with a basket and a 2-0 lead, but from there on it was all UConn. The Red Storm quickly fell into a hole and even though Fiscella’s efforts often pulled the Storm close, they couldn’t quite get out of the hole.

The Red Storm did not see the lead again until Fiscella, on the break, rolled in a layup late in the fourth quarter that gave his team a 49-48 advantage.

The story was a little different in the case of UMass. After Providence opened with a 9-2 lead in the first quarter, the Minutemen went on a 15-3 run that put them on top, 17-12, and seemingly on a roll.

But after Anthony Perez dropped in a shot in the low post, Providence started clawing its way back into the game. Slowly at first, the Friars built up momentum until, with an inside basket and foul by Christian Power, they took the lead back, 29-27.

Although tied at the half, 29-29, the game continued to swing in Providence’s favor in the third quarter. An 11-4 run put the Friars up, 40-33, late in the third quarter. But that’s when the Minutement made their second – and decisive – rally of the game.

It started with a simple foul shot and then a nice spinaround shot by Devon Manfredonia to close the third period.

Marcus Tracy put the Minutemen ahead, 41-40, with a foul shot, but the Friars managed to tie the game back up moments later, 44-44, on a nice crossover dribble and runner in the lane by Max Kaye. But Stephan Lamb had his own layin to put UMass ahead, 46-44, and quickly scored another basket off an inbounds turnover to give the Minutemen the four-point cushion, 48-44.

The best sequence of the night came soon after, with UMass ahead by two, 48-46. Tracy canned a pair of free throws to put the Minutemen ahead, 50-46, then raced down the end of the court to make a tremendous block on what would have been an easy basket.

The game ended with a Lamb layup just as time expired.

It was a thrilling night of playoff basketball in the Rising Stars Summer League.