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Niles wins with game on the (free throw) line
By Brandon Judeh
Struthers
The frigid temperatures outside of Struthers Fieldhouse couldn’t cool down the heat the Niles Red Dragons brought to the court on Tuesday evening.
Niles went 26 of 30 from the free throw line en route to a 68-60 victory over Struthers.
Senior Chris Parry scored a game high 28 points, 13 from the charity stripe.
“Coach stresses all the time in practice how important it is to hit your free throws,” Parry said. “Every day in practice we condition and then shoot free throws right after. That way we get the experience of shooting them while very tired.”
Parry hit all 13 of his free throws in the second half.
Conditioning plays a huge part as the Red Dragons (2-1, 1-1 All-American Conference American Division) never let up their trap defense and hit 11 of their free throws down the stretch.
“You can ask any of the guys on this team whether or not conditioning plays an important role, and they will all say yes,” said Niles coach Ron Price.
“Most of our kids are football players and just great all-around athletes, plus we have been working hard to get them conditioned ever since football season ended and I’m glad when people notice that they are in great shape.”
Throughout the game it was a typical AAC battle as both teams looked in midseason form.
They were tied 24-24 at halftime and the game looked destined to go down to the final minutes.
And it did.
But key turnovers by Struthers (1-1, 0-1 AAC) down the stretch coupled with Niles’ free throw shooting doomed the Wildcats.
“This is definitely a tough loss, especially this early in the season when you’re trying to build momentum,” said Struthers head coach Joe Savko. “This knocks the kids down a little bit, but what we need to do is come back tomorrow in practice and work on some things and continue to improve.”
Leading the way for the Wildcats was junior Rayquan Phifer who scored a team high 23 points and grabbed seven boards. Classmate Austin Yemma chipped in with 18 points, including four 3-pointers.
Niles senior James Tate said this win will go a long way in building his team’s confidence.
“This was a fun game and a great learning experience, down the road if we are in another tight game like this we know that we have the ability to pull it out,” added Tate, who had nine points and six rebounds.
“Now we’re 1-1 in the conference, we have that first conference win under our belt, so now we just need to keep climbing and shoot for our goal of a conference championship,” Parry added.
Justin Lopes and Cameron Kane each added 13 points for Niles. Kane went 10 of 11 from the free throw line.