Cold Finish But…
TA Holds On, Beats BHS, 37-36
Posted: January 12, 2013
TA’s Angel Bravo defends as BHS’s Tyler Williams drives during Friday’s game at Broadway. (Photo by Michael Reilly / DN-R)
The Knights – who went 0-for-5 from the line in the final 2:45 – held BHS scoreless in the same stretch to survive with a 37-36 Valley District win on Friday night.
Broadway missed four shots in the final 2:45: a layup on a fast break, two from point-blank range and a short one underneath on the last play of the game.
After calling timeout with 7.8 seconds to play, the Gobblers ran a designed play to senior forward Dane Spitzer. His shot missed with two seconds on the clock, and the Knights held on.
“The No. 1 thing was don’t foul,” TA coach Chad Seibert said. “And the No. 2 thing was it’s almost never the last shot that beats you. Rarely does a guy make a miracle shot. It’s almost always the offensive rebound, because the team that’s down is more desperate and the other guys watch. We were just intense about going and … fighting with everything you’re worth, and they did that; they won it on the defensive end.”
Junior point guard Taylor Corbin led Turner Ashby (7-7 overall, 2-4 in the district) with 11 points, nine of which came in the second half to help the Knights get back to .500.
“Not much pressure,” Corbin said. “It was intense, because we wanted to get this win to get it even. I think we’re 7-7 now, and we wanted to get there, get our heads one step closer to above water.”
Senior forward Justin Layman added 10 points, despite battling foul trouble – he picked up his fourth personal with 7:27 left in the fourth quarter – and a cold shooting night. But Layman gave TA its first lead on a pair of free throws with 1:37 left in the second quarter.
Senior guard Kenley Lohr led BHS (2-13, 0-6) with a game-high 16 points before fouling out with 44.3 seconds remaining. After that, junior guard Austin Phares missed a shot under the hoop and the stick-back with TA leading 37-36. Then the Gobblers fouled TA senior center Jonathan Keppel to stop the clock. Keppel missed the front end of a one-and-one to give BHS a chance at the end.
The Gobblers got the rebound and called timeout, setting up the final play. BHS also could have taken the lead with roughly 1:30 to go when sophomore guard Tyler Williams stole the ball near halfcourt and went on a fast break by himself. But he couldn’t convert.
“You wish they would go in,” said Broadway coach Dwight Walton, whose team out-rebounded TA 35-30. “You’re not exactly sure why they’re not going in. That’s a good layup take by Tyler. He knocks that down nine out of 10 times. Austin’s beating and banging hard, trying to get the [stick-back] – we crashed the boards harder than we crashed the boards all year long, and you give them credit for that. And then Dane’s look at the end, it’s just, you know, probably everybody in the house figured it was going there. It’s a tough shot for him.”
But TA couldn’t score, either. In the fourth quarter, the Knights managed just five points, and their last field goal was at the 3:21 mark. Sophomore guard Angel Bravo drilled a 3-pointer to put TA ahead 37-34 and break a tie game after BHS – which led by as many as eight at the 7:49 mark in the second quarter – rallied from a nine-point deficit with 7:09 to go.
The Knights could have made it significantly less dramatic by making a few free throws. They converted 6-of-12 for the game.
“I thought their free-throw defense was exceptional,” Seibert joked. “I don’t understand. You’re 15 feet away. No defense. You’ve got 10 seconds to shoot. We’ve shot the ball great at the free-throw line at times. … We’ve been shooting about 1,000 every two, three days, so it’s not like we’re not working on them. Those moments become easier every time you’re in them, and we’ve just got to continue to want to be the guy at the line and believe and then do a little bit better next time and knock them down.”