Wednesday, February 22, 2012
By MATTHEW PEASLEE
mpeaslee@vindy.com
NEW MIDDLETOWN
It didn’t turn out to be a simple win, even though it looked like it could have been. Still, Tom Mastran won’t soon forget his last home game at Springfield High.
“As soon as I get home, it’ll hit me,” he said after the Tigers’ 48-44 win over McDonald. “It’s hard to believe this was the last time I’ll play here. I had a lot of good memories here and it’s great to go out with a tough win.”
Springfield (18-2) never trailed, but for the final stretch of the fourth quarter, the last home victory for Mastran and four other seniors was anything but guaranteed.
Austin Bucan hit a 3-pointer to cut the McDonald deficit to three with three minutes, 18 seconds left. Two possessions later, he grabbed a highly contested rebound and called time out with 30 seconds left. Still down by three, 47-44, the Blue Devils had caught a second wind.
“We still battled for all four quarters,” said McDonald coach Brian Higgens. “We knew we wanted to come out and compete.”
The Blue Devils trailed by as many as 12 earlier, but all that mattered was their final possessions.
With just four team fouls, Springfield fouled as McDonald’s Anthony Pugh brought the ball past half court. After the inbounds pass, they fouled again, winding the clock down to 15 seconds.
“We had fouls to give so we sort of limited their touches,” said Springfield coach Eric Fender. “We moved the clock down and it gave them less of an opportunity to get a good shot and stop them from getting off a designed play. It’s to try and rush them at the end.”
That, along with tight defense on Stephen Politano, resulted in Bucan taking an open 3-point attempt with six seconds left. The shot hit the front end of the rim before Ron Rogers secured the rebound.
“We wanted to get Stephen in the corner, but they had an eye on him pretty good so we couldn’t get it over there,” Higgens said. “For Austin to be open and to eye one up, after he had just knocked down a 3 — I can live with that. He had a great opportunity and just missed. I’ll let him shoot that anytime.”
Rogers was immediately fouled, but missed the front end of a one-and-one. However, Jared McTigue grabbed the rebound for the Tigers. He too was fouled and made one free throw to extend the final lead to four.
“They put pressure on us, for sure,” Mastran said. “We were just focusing on holding onto the ball and taking good shots and not doing anything stupid.”
The Tigers led 24-12 five minutes into the game, but McDonald closed the gap to four just two minutes later. Springfield led by six at halftime and extended it 10, 39-29, when Mastran stole an errant pass and took it coast-to-coast for an easy layup. He finished with six points and five steals.
“It was a grind the whole time,” Higgens said. “Every basket felt like it was hard to get. It’s the kind of game that if you don’t get the lead, you don’t feel good. You’re one shot away from getting blown out, or one from keeping it close.”
Nick Russell, Ron Rogers, Joe Ohlin and Ryan Stacy — the other Springfield seniors — all figured into the scoring. Russell had eight points, six rebounds and four blocks. Rogers had a team-high 11 points.
Matt Seitz led the Blue Devils (11-8) with 19 points. Politano added nine with seven rebounds.