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Boardman rallies for Federal victory
By Greg Gulas
BOARDMAN
With 22 seconds remaining in a tie game, all Boardman coach Dan McKeown wanted senior guard John Fithian to do was get the inbound pass to halfcourt and then call a timeout.
Instead, Fithian found Dayne Hammond for the game-winning bucket in the Spartans’ 47-45 victory in Friday’s Federal League game.
“We didn’t want to shoot the ball that fast, but with Dayne so wide open we just couldn’t pass up that opportunity,” Fithian said. “It’s a great feeling to go out a winner on Senior Night because we now know that this win will get us a better seed at tournament time.”
As for Hammond, any win against a Federal League team is a special win.
“This was a big win because this team has beaten teams that have beaten us so we know that we can compete with the rest of the teams in the league,” Hammond said. “Our defense was the key.
“In the end, it was our solid defensive play that helped preserve the victory,” Hammond said.
McKeown said the Spartans (10-7, 2-5) “weren’t playing as a team. In the end, however, it was only fitting that John found Dayne with the game-winning bucket.
“I was disappointed by the way that we started the game,” McKeown said. “We were flat a good portion of the first half but to our credit we didn’t quit.
“At halftime, we told the team that if we expected to win then we had better match their energy and most especially, their physical play,” McKeown said.
The Blue Streaks built an early 8-2 advantage and with Ryan Coen scoring six of his team-high 18 points.
Six points by Hammond keyed a 10-1 run by the Spartans to cut the Lake lead to 21-19, but four points by Coen in the final three seconds helped the Blue Streaks to a 24-19 lead at the intermission.
“It’s been an awful three weeks for us,” Lake coach Tom McBride said. “The flu, missed practices and our inability to catch the ball in crucial situations late in the game was costly for us tonight.
“They rolled the dice, substituted five guys that energized them and then hit some key shots when they needed to,” said McBride of the Spartans. “That was the difference in the game.”
Six points by Tyler Maranville after the intermission helped the Blue Flashes to a 38-33 lead, but a 17-2 run by the Spartans gave Boardman a 43-40 lead with 3:49 remaining.
The Spartans won for the fourth time in their last five outings.
The Spartans were 21 of 45 from the field while the Blue Streaks canned 20 of 49 aerial attempts.