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Tigers roar in rivalry
By LOWELL SPENCER
BEAVER TOWNSHIP
Friday’s Springfield-South Range boys basketball game lived up to its reputation for being one of the area’s best backyard rivalries.
“It’s a great rivalry, it was a great game,” said Springfield coach Eric Fender after the Tigers posted a 68-66 overtime win.
“Neither team gave up.”
“I think that’s one of the best things about this rivalry, it doesn’t matter how bad you are, or how down you are, they’re never going to give up, and they showed that,” Fender said.
Tigers guard Ron Rogers hit a 3-pointer with just three seconds remaining in regulation to knot the score at 60-60.
Rogers also a hit an unorthodox lay-up with nine seconds left in the overtime to propel the Tigers to their first Inter Tri-County League victory.
“That was a specific play called for him,” Fender said of the 3-pointer. “And he banked it. We had a nice rebound by Joey Ohlin, and it got kicked back out to him, and he knocked it down.
The Tigers were able to penetrate the Raider’s defense numerous times with senior guards Tom Mastran and Nick Russell as they built a 34-21 halftime advantage.
They even stretched the lead to 17 points midway through the third quarter.
But the Raiders would rally.
Behind the spirited play of the senior guard Brandon Pluchinsky, they took their first lead, 57-55, with 1:27 remaining.
“The problem is we just dug ourselves to much of a hole in the first half,” Raiders coach David Purins said.
“Part of our pre-game speech was having faith in one another and having each others back, so we were able to reiterate that at halftime,” Purins said. “And our guys really dug in for each other, and I can’t be any more proud of the effort they showed in the second half and in overtime.”
The Raiders led 64-60 midway through the overtime, but Mastran hit a 3-pointer with 58 seconds remaining to put the Tigers back up, 66-64.
A basket by Jordan Baker tied the game with 42 seconds remaining.
“We came into this week practicing pretty badly, but we came back Thursday and had a really good practice and it showed up here,” Rogers said.
“This means a lot,” Fender added. “We know they are going to be top of the league, and we knew we would have to battle, and we would have to come here and win and give ourselves the opportunity to get the ITCL crown,”