Howland holds off Warren JFK rally to win

Nathan Cope scored 27 points
as the Tigers built a 20-point lead then escaped with a 60-55 win.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

HOWLAND — Senior guard Nathan Cope scored 27 points and Howland High held off a determined comeback bid in a 60-55 victory Friday night over Warren JFK.

Cope scored 20 of his points in the first half as the Tigers (6-2) built a 36-24 lead. The advantage reached 49-29 with 1:55 remaining in the third quarter before the Eagles (2-5) whittled the gap to three points in the final seconds. Junior forward Nick Brown paced the Eagles with 22 points.

“I’m not real happy tonight, we didn’t finish well,” Howland coach Don Andres said. “We had a 20-point lead and we played like we were behind instead of ahead. I give Kennedy credit, they hung tough, and Brown is a really good player.”

JFK’s rally began in the final two minutes of the third quarter when Brown made two free throws and senior guard Brian Guarnieri converted a three-point play, cutting the lead to 49-34.

The Eagles didn’t get the lead under double digits until the 4:26 mark of the fourth quarter when Bruce Timko’s two free throws made it 54-45. Brown’s 3-pointer at the 2:42 mark made it 55-49 and his free throws made it 55-51 with 1:23 on the clock.

Howland milked the clock from there and a 4-for-4 performance at the foul line down the stretch by Drew Guido iced the victory.

“I told the kids they gave a great effort. We made a great comeback,” first-year Kennedy coach Bruce Timko said. “They had about an eight or 10-point run in the second quarter and that kind of threw us off. But our kids fought hard and came back in the second half.”

Howland led 20-14 after one quarter, but JFK closed to within 23-22 with 4:46 remaining in the second quarter. The Tigers then ran off 11 straight points — six by Cope — to open a double-digit lead.

“Kennedy played hard, it’s a rivalry game, but our kids played hard also,” Andres said. “We just got in a major league lull there for awhile. We’ve got to learn how to play ahead and from behind. We had an 11-point lead and we’re fouling people 60 feet from the basket. Then we had a nine-point lead with two and a half to go and we’re charging. They come down and hit a three. That’s a five-point turnaround.

“But we’ll take it, I’d rather learn and win. We lost 10 games by four points or less last year.”

Cope was supported offensively by Jared Kirin with 10 points and Tyler Scott with nine. Drew Guido dished out five assists.

For JFK, Guarnieri tallied 15 points and Stephen Procopio had 12 to go with six rebounds and four blocked shots. Ryan McCollum grabbed eight rebounds, Brown dished out seven assists and Timko had four.

“Nick Brown led our team,” coach Timko said. “Nick is one of the best players in the area. Sometimes he has to force shots because he is our offense, but he also distributed well in the second half.

“I think we grew up tonight. Playing at Howland, they’re 5-2 against some pretty good basketball teams, we’re a Division IV team competing at this level. I’m really happy with what we did tonight, we made big strides tonight.”