Titans suffer another close defeat, this one in overtime

Westminister battled, but still lost 102-98 to Grove City.

By BILL ALBRIGHT

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

GROVE CITY, Pa. — Westminster’s streak of close losses continued Wednesday night, when the Titans lost to Grove City, 102-98 in overtime, at College Arena.

The Titans have lost five games by four points or less.

“This thing is getting old, but the one thing is that we came on to their court and you are supposed to be able to defend your court,” said Westminster coach Larry Ondako. “They banked in some threes and I felt they needed some help to beat us.”

The Titans trailed by 10 points with 2:40 left in regulation, but on the strength of back-to-back 3s by Craig Hannon (Union) and Chauncey Whitlow (Wilson), they tied the score at 89 to send the game into the extra period.

“You need your big guys to step up in that situation and they did,” said Ondako. “Andy Timko did an outstanding job to get us going throughout the whole game. We can’t always lean on Craig, Chauncey and Ryan. We need some other people to step up.”

In the extra period, Grove City’s Ryan Gibson, Sean Carr, Andy O’Keefe and Luke Tomaselli combined to outscore the Titans 13-9.

Grove City coach Steve Lamie felt it was a case of individuals making great plays that determined the winner.

“Sean Carr made some deep 3s and on their side, Hannon is a heckuva shooter and he showed that tonight.”

Max Spinner led Westminster with 22 points, while Andy O’Keefe and Ryan Gibson led the Wolverines with 20 apiece.

Women

Westminster remained unbeaten at 6-0 but it wasn’t easy.

Having to battle back from 10 and 7-point deficits, the Titans played strong down the stretch in a 50-45 win over Grove City.

“It knew coming in it was going to be a battle,” said Westminster coach Rosanne Scott. “They [Grove City] have been playing good defense and rebounding well and they did that again tonight.”

The Titans opened the second half with a 9-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 26-24 before the two teams found themselves deadlocked at 31-all seven minutes into the second half.

From there, the Titans went put together a 12-5 run to lead by seven and they never trailed again.

“The one thing I would like to change is that we don’t come out well after halftime,” said Grove City coach Sarah Harris. “We had a 7-point lead, and rather than building on it, we let them right back in the game and eventually gave up the lead.”

Leading Westminster down the stretch was Emilee Ackerman with 11 of her game high 24 points, one more than her season average. When Ackerman completed a conventional three-point play, the Titan senior surpassed the 1,000-point mark in her career. She now has 1,013 points.

“It was a wonderful night for me and it was nice to be out there,” said Ackerman. “Usually I wait until the second half to do much and see what happens from there. Coach Scott told us at the beginning of the season that every game we play is going to be a battle and so far, it has been.”

Krista Beechy led Grove City with 10 points.