Williams delivers Campbell win

Jerah’me Williams’ foul shot lifted the Red Devils past Mooney, 57-56.

By GREG GULAS

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

CAMPBELL — Jerah’me Williams quickly is becoming Campbell Memorial’s “go-to guy” when the game is on the line ... and most especially, when there is no time on the clock.

For the second time this season, the sophomore guard sank a free throw as time expired, giving the Red Devils to a 57-56, come-from-behind win over Cardinal Mooney Friday at the N.A. D’Amato Field House.

“I got the ball off of a steal with very little time left,” Williams said. “I was just hoping to get a good look at the basket with the hopes of getting off a shot. The worst case scenario was that the game would go into overtime if I didn’t make the bucket.”

“I wasn’t nervous at all, took my time and then took a deep breath before attempting the free throw,” Williams said. “Fortunately, my first try went right in.”

Earlier this season in much the same manner, Williams’ free throw iced the game for the Red Devils in their win over Newton Falls.

“Jerah’me started for us as a freshman a season ago and that experience of playing with a veteran unit has really paid off for him this season,” Campbell coach Brian Danilov said.

“Cardinal Mooney is a very physical team and head coach Steve Leslie does an excellent job of preparing them,” Danilov said. “We played well in spurts and while I am happy with our effort tonight, we still have to clean up portions of our game if we expect to be there in the end.

“We still need to get better in certain areas, but more importantly must healthy real fast with the Poland Bulldogs coming to town Tuesday night,” Danilov said.

Mooney (1-2) raced out to the early 5-0 lead on the strength of a three-point play by Michael Gemma, but the Red Devils (5-0), sparked by Williams’ seven points, scored 13 of the last 17 points in the quarter for a 13-9 lead after a quarter of play.

Williams ended up with a game-high 20 points on the night.

L.J. Sutton’s six points in the second quarter then helped the Cardinals keep pace as they trailed just 28-24 at intermission.

Sutton added 12 rebounds and with 16 total points, registered the games only double-double.

In the third quarter, six points by Nick Feliciano and four each from Sutton and Tim Marlowe helped the Cardinals to an 11-0 start as Mooney outscored the Red Devils 18-10 in the period for a 42-38 advantage with eight minutes remaining.

Campbell Memorial scored 14 of the first 23 points in final stanza as they built a 52-51 advantage, but a bucket by Sutton with 36 seconds remaining then knotted the game for the final time at 56-all.

Williams was fouled as time expired and he calmly sunk his first free throw to secure the victory for the Red Devils.

“The kids on each side played hard tonight,” Leslie said. “We grew up a lot from this past weekend but still have a way to go if we expect to be a better ball club.”

“Our two losses this season have come to two excellent programs; Warren Harding and Campbell Memorial. We made too many mistakes and had too many unforced turnovers. We now need to clean-up both of those areas and limit our breakdowns as well,” Leslie said.

The Red Devils were 19 of 41 from the field while the Cardinals connected on 21 of 59 shots on the night.

Neither team had a stellar night at the free throw line as the Cardinals canned 14 of 24 and the Red Devils just 17 of 30 from the charity stripe.

Mooney held a 38-25 rebound advantage.