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Unbeaten Jefferson holds off Struthers
By Steve Wilaj
struthers
Jefferson’s Sam Hitchcock had Struthers forward Luis Mateo in his ear the whole time down the court.
It was late in the third quarter and the Wildcats — who trailed by 17 in the second quarter — were chipping at the Falcons’ lead, eventually cutting the deficit to two points entering the fourth quarter.
“We had to stay poised,” Hitchcock said. “They were coming after us.”
Jefferson had the final word.
Regrouping for the fourth quarter, the Falcons outscored Struthers by seven points in the last eight minutes to defeat the Wildcats, 73-64, Friday night at the Struthers Field House. Led by Hitchcock’s 17 points and 13 rebounds, Jefferson improved to 10-0 (5-0 All-American Conference, White Tier).
“They needed that win,” Hitchcock said. “So we just had to take everything they had — their best shot — and take them down.”
Leading 50-48 after three quarters, the Falcons built their lead to seven points with four minutes remaining. Struthers (8-5, 6-2 AAC White) then trimmed the score to 64-59 at the 1:43 mark with two Ray Phifer free throws.
But a Lucas Hitchcock layup on the next possession pushed Jefferson’s lead back to seven points. And after a put-back by Struthers’ Andrew Carbon with 1:05 made it 66-61, the Falcons converted on five free throws to ice the contest.
“All year we’ve been in a lot of situations where we’ve been down, especially late in the game,” Jefferson coach Steve French said. “We just keep our poise and stay under control.”
The Falcons — who received 16 points apiece from Sam Caskey and Jacob Adams — were also particularly poised in the first quarter, as they jumped out to a 19-6 lead.
“Nothing worked off the get-go,” Struthers coach Jimmy Franceschelli said. “We threw a zone and even some gimmick defenses at them. So we went back to man-to-man defense and just told our guys to get out there and play a little bit.”
The Wildcats responded with a 19-14 second-quarter advantage before outscoring Jefferson 23-17 in the third. Austin Yemma led Struthers with 18 points, Carbon scored 12 and Phifer added 10 points. Mateo also provided a spark with 11 points off the bench.
But ultimately, Franceschelli felt that Struthers — which shot 40 percent — left too many points on the table.
“The first game against them, we missed about 16 or 17 layups,” he said. “Then again tonight I think we probably missed 16 or 17 layups — ones we normally don’t miss. It’s a little discouraging, but we’ll bounce back from this.”
The Wildcats also shot just 10 of 21 from the foul line, although Jefferson wasn’t any better, finishing 15 of 31 from the charity stripe. Still, The Falcons finished 56 percent from the field (26 of 46).
“We were ready for them,” French said. “Guys did a good job of staying patient. We just try to keep exploiting mismatches, playing hard and it’s been good for us.”