McDonald pulls past Sebring

The Blue Devils claimed
second place in Tier Two of the ITCL.

By RYAN JONES

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

SEBRING — McDonald High boys basketball coach Jeff Rasile said if his team were to avenge its ITCL Tier Two loss at home against Sebring, it had to play better.

The Blue Devils overcame a shaky performance from the charity stripe — they shot (4-of-11) in the final two minutes — to hold on to a 56-48 triumph over the Trojans. The victory puts McDonald (14-3, 10-3) alone in second place in the ITCL Tier Two standings.

“When you play Sebring you know they are going to be fundamentally sound,” Rasile said. “We knew what we were getting ourselves into. We wanted to come in here and prove that we could win on their floor. I’m very happy to leave here with a victory.”

Trailing 42-36 heading into the fourth quarter, Sebring scored the first four points of the final frame on a free throw and a three-pointer from Devin Weekley. Weekley, who led Sebring with 16 points and four 3-pointers, fouled out on the ensuing possession with 6:06 left in the game.

McDonald answered with the next four points on Ronald Johnson’s pull-up jumper and JR Harvey’s lay-up to push the lead to 46-40 with five minutes remaining.

Rasile said he was pleased with the play of Harvey, who scored 13 points off the bench for the Blue Devils.

“He stepped up for us,” Rasile said. “He’s been averaging about 10 points per game over the last six games.”

The Trojans clawed to within 48-45 after Zach Tieche connected on two free throws. By that point coach Brian Clark said he thought his best chance to win was by fouling and extending the game.

The Trojans fouled six times in the last two minutes, but twice on one-and-one opportunities gave up offensive rebounds to the Blue Devils. In addition, Tieche (Sebring’s leading scorer, who had 15 points) fouled out with 1:10 remaining.

“You’ve got to get the ball back after you foul and they miss,” Clark said. “Our great plan went awry when we were unable to rebound their misses from the line. I don’t think there are many coaches that would like to play the final part of a game with three of their starters on the bench.”

Clark said even though the matchup between his team and McDonald doesn’t look good on paper, his team finds a way to play well.

“When you play McDonald you’re always worried about their offensive rebounding and pressure defense because if they have those things going you can’t get enough shot attempts to win,” he said. “We matched them in shot attempts and had enough quality shots to win, but we missed them. There were a number of layups and free throws in the first half that we missed. Had we made some of those we might have had a lead heading into the second half.”

Adam Streb led McDonald with 16 points and 12 rebounds, even though he was limited in the second half because of foul trouble.

“Adam’s our horse; there’s a reason why he averages 20 points and 12 rebounds a game for us,” Rasile said. “He’s got all of the skills you need in a big man.”

The Blue Devils shot 21-of-40 (53 percent) from the field, while Sebring connected on 14-of-41 (34 percent). The Trojans held the advantage in mistakes — they committed 13 turnovers while the Blue Devils had 19.

Allan Jurica dished out a game-high eight assists, and Justin Wade added eight rebounds and five steals for Sebring (12-6, 9-4).