Hickory loses to Fort LeBoeuf in district event
Grove City beat Meadville 40-39 in the other District 10 contest.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
SLIPPERY ROCK -- Somebody forgot to tell Fort LeBoeuf that Hickory had defeated the Bison some six weeks ago.
Despite falling behind early Thursday night, the Bison led by as many as 13 points in the third period before holding off the Hornets, 45-43 in a District 10 Class AAA quarterfinal game at Morrow Field House.
"We had a good season, but I am disappointed for them because I thought they deserved a little better, but that is the way playoffs are," said Hickory coach Nick Cannone. "We had them on the run late in the game, but we turned it over and it cost us."
Hornets led early
The Hornets jumped on top early as David Lumpp drained a pair of 3s on the front end of a 10-3 run to open the game before the Bison cut their deficit to just two points on a bucket by Nick Henneberry and a 3 by Jeff Campbell.
LeBoeuf took its first lead of the game (11-10) on a 3-point play to open the second quarter, but the Hornets answered back to go on top 14-11 on buckets by Matt Durisco and Andy Banas.
However, that is when the Bison decided to pound the ball inside as they outscored Hickory 13-2 in the final six minutes of the period to take a 24-16 lead at halftime.
Doing most of the damage during the stretch were Henneberry (6) and Harry Latta (4) as the pair combined to score all 10 of LeBoeuf's 13 points.
"That [taking the ball inside] has been our philosophy all year long," said Fort LeBoeuf coach Brian Emick. "At times we really execute that well and at times we don't. Fortunately for us tonight, it worked."
The Bison stretched their lead to 13 three minutes into the third period, but the Hornets battled back with a 10-3 run to close out the third period to trail 33-27 after three periods.
"Being down was nothing new for us," said Cannone. "It seems like we have been in a lot of games like this one a lot lately so it didn't really concern me that much. What bothered me was that we didn't handle their zone very well."
Jaymee Shepherd hit a pair of 3s for Hickory that pulled the Bison out of their zone. That's when Hickory made its move to regain the lead.
"Once we caught them, I felt good, but it just wasn't meant to be," Cannone said. "The kids battled, but knowing this group of kids, I knew that would happen. But again, I thought we could have done a little better job against their zone."
Battled back again
Still trailing by six points with five minutes left, the Hornets went to work on offense to regain the lead at 43-41 before Latta scored the final four points of the game.
& quot;We had the play we wanted," said Cannone of the final shot. "But we didn't get a very good ball screen for [shooter David] Lumpp. He had the option of turning the corner or pull up, but it just didn't happen."
Henneberry (18) and Latta (11) led the Bison to their win, while the Hornets were paced by Banas with 15,
Grove City 40, Meadville 39
In the nightcap, Grove City edged Meadville 40-39 in overtime.
The Eagles spread their wealth around as Maxx Stutz, Dan Keil and Jordan Fee each counted 10 points. For Meadville, Toney Phillips came on strong in the second half to lead the way with 10 points, Aaron Barton a point behind Phillips with nine points.
With the game on the line, Keil came up big as he made 5-of-6 at the charity stripe to allow the Eagles to go on top by four before Joe Mottillo hit a 3 at the final.
"These kids found another way to survive," said Grove City coach Don Fee. "That [surviving] is something we write on the chalk board all the time. Many times getting that first [win] is the toughest and hopefully this one will springboard us into our next game."