Rayen wins final home game, 65-60

By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Henrietta Williams' favorite memory of the Rayen School's gymnasium came in March 1985. The Tigers were headed to Columbus for the state tournament and she was among the hundreds of people who filled the gym to see them off.
"There were so many people, they couldn't fit them all in the gym," said Williams, the school's current principal who was the girls varsity basketball coach in 1985. "There was an overflow into the parking lot.
"It was awesome."
The Tigers went on to win their only state title that weekend, beating Columbus Linden-McKinley in the Class AA final. Twenty-two years later, a near-capacity crowd came to the North Side gym to watch the final varsity boys basketball game, hoping to reclaim a little bit of Tiger magic.
"The kids knew how much it meant," said Rayen coach Jason McCray. "They knew it was the last time they would play here.
"I didn't need to say much."
And while the visiting Chaney Cowboys made it interesting, the Tigers found a way, outscoring their longtime rivals 17-10 in the fourth quarter to earn a 65-60 victory Saturday.
"I love to play in this gym," said senior Bre Boudrey, who had 16 points for the Tigers (6-14). "This hasn't been the greatest season so we really needed this one."
Senior Night
The school held Senior Night before the game, giving each player a rose and a gift basket with a mini-basketball inside. The cheerleaders were also introduced and each received an orange blanket with the words "2007 Finale" printed on one of the corners.
The homecoming court was also introduced, a disc jockey played songs and several former players attended the game, including Floyd Showers, who was a member of that 1985 team. His son, Floyd Showers IV, is a sophomore on Rayen's team and finished with three points, all in the fourth quarter.
"We had a couple former players, including Floyd Showers, come talk to us to tell us how important it was to play here," said Boudrey.
The Tigers started the game well, sprinting out to a 13-5 lead. But the Cowboys battled back, thanks in large measure to Evan Busch, who made four 3-pointers in the first quarter to give Chaney a 21-19 lead entering the second quarter.
The teams exchanged leads for the next two quarters and Rayen couldn't get any separation due to poor free throw shooting. The Tigers made just 4-of-11 in the first half and 13-of-36 for the game.
"I try to tell these kids that we need to do better on the little things like that," said McCray. "We could be such a better team. But we played pretty well tonight other than that. We hit the glass and played good defense."
Fouls hurt Chaney
Chaney held its final lead, 59-57, with four minutes remaining, but the Cowboys' propensity for fouling finally caught up to them. Three players fouled out over the next few minutes and the Cowboys went cold from the field, allowing the Tigers to take a 60-59 lead with three minutes left, then hold on the rest of the way.
"We fell short of victory but I felt like we did some good things and showed we could handle the press going into the tournament, which is important," said Cowboys coach Bernard Bohla, a 1990 Chaney High graduate who played at Rayen's gym several times.
"It's nice to see the kids merging into one school and to see them coming together as a city," said Bohla. "I remember playing games here and they were always hard-fought games. It was fun."
Busch finished with 19 points for the Cowboys (2-18), while Taon Belcher added 18 points, 13 rebounds and three steals. Victor Toney had 13 points.
Nick Arrington had 12 points and Tomaz Hilton, who will play at Cincinnati on a football scholarship next fall, had eight points and 10 rebounds. He also had the gym's final dunk, breaking away for a one-handed jam late in the second quarter.
Culver officiates JV game
Rayen also won the final junior varsity game, which was officiated by former Tiger Lawrence Culver, who graduated in 1992.
Culver heard about the great Rayen teams growing up and later played against several players on the city's playgrounds. ("I took my lumps," he said, smiling.) Culver specifically requested to officiate the game, wanting to make sure he was part of the historic night.
"I'm sad about this," he said. "I was thinking about it today how they're going to tear this building down.
"But hey, what can you do?"
scalzo@vindy.com
To view a gallery from the game, & lt;a href="http://media2.vindy.com/photos/rayen/index.html" target="_blank" & gt;click here & lt;/a & gt;