(Timon's Derick Simpson heads to the basket where he dropped the #BOOM)
There are a lot of cliches in basketball that are intended to apply to winning. Live & die by the '3'. The team that starts out hot. It's not how you start, it's how you finish. Win with defense. Pound it inside. Attack the basket. When we're on from the perimeter...etc. All have there place and are true under the right circumstances. Last night Timon visited St. Joe's, and after a slow start, took command of the game. But the Marauders kept battling and refused to go away, making it a thriller at the end. So what cliche did this one come down to from my perspective? Games are won & lost at the free throw line.
Sophomore point guard William Lamar scored a game-high 29 points, including a 12/13 performance from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter, to lead the Tigers to a 84-79 at St. Joe's.
It was the Marauders that came flying out of the gates early on, hitting three consecutive treys (Jack Scaglione, Grant Beyer, & Naseer Jackson) in the first three minutes and building a quick double figure lead in the opening quarter. Junior guard Nick Motley scored nine points in the latter portion of the stanza over a span of 1:34, helping St. Joe's to build a 24-14 lead, before Joe Harrison canned a '3' for the Tigers, making it 24-14 in favor of the Marauders after one.
When the Tigers came out for the second quarter, they looked like a completely different team - much more aggressive on the offensive end, which sparked their defensive intensity. Timon started the quarter with a pair of three-point plays (William Lamar & Derick Simpson) and followed it up with a '3' from Lamar. The Tigers yielded just three Marauder points over the quarter's first five minutes, a trey from Scaglione, while pouring on the offense. Timon came all the way back and took a 31-29 lead before the Marauders finally scored again - another Scaglione 3-pointer. Just before halftime, Simpson scored to give the Tigers a 39-37 lead heading into the intermission.
"We started playing our style - attacking and finishing at the rim", Timon coach Joe Mihalics said. "We didn't do that at the beginning, so we spotted them some points".
The Tigers continued to dictate the tempo in the third quarter, attacking the basket and winning the transition game. Leading by six points at the seconds ticked down to end the third quarter, Timon's Simpson heaved one from half court as he went to the ground. From his seat on the hardwood, he watched his shot bank in, good for 3 points and a 57-48 Tigers lead after three quarters.
Just over a minute into the final stanza, Timon had stretched its lead to 65-49, and looked like they we going for the kill. However, the Marauders had other ideas, and too much pride to wave the white flag.
"They battle", Mihalics said. "He (St. Joe's coach Mark Simon) always gets them to play to the end and they just keep coming".
Battle they did. St. Joe's used a full court trap, which turned things into a track meet, but also allowed them to chip away at the deficit. With 3:47 remaining, Timon still led by 11 points. The Marauders used a 15-4 run to come all the way back, tying the game at 79-79, with under a minute to play on a bucket from Jackson, after Motley had canned a '3' on the previous possession.
But as I wrote in the onset, it was free throws that ultimately made the difference. With the game on the line, it was Lamar who scored the game's final five points to ice things, while shooting over 90% from the line in crunch time. Conversely, the Marauders were going one for two on most trips to the stripe at the end, going 8/15 down the stretch, which negated an otherwise inspiring comeback.
"It's a learning process for us playing with that lead", Mihalics said. "We need to mature a little, that's a point of emphasis because I expect us to be winning games at the end and we need to learn how to handle that".
As for Lamar's performance - two 3-pointers, 29 points, 15/18 from the FT line in the game & 12/13 in the final stanza, Mihalics knew exactly who he wanted handling the ball at the end.
"He's been our best free throw shooter all year", said Mihalics. "He gets to the line more than anyone on our team as a point guard - he goes hard to the hole".
Simpson finished the game with 19 points for Timon, Joe Harrison scored 18 points, and Quinton Lamar added 12 points.
Motley scored a team-high 24 points for St. Joe's, Scaglione scored 15 points, Marcell Davis added 13 points, while Beyer & Jackson finished with 11 & 10 points respectively.
-centercourt
Comments