Saturday, January 17, 2015
O’Hara, Girard pull past Brookfield
By Joe Scalzo
GIRARD
Girard High boys basketball coach Craig Hannon is less than seven years removed from his Westminster basketball career and he’s already got some gray hair in his goatee (not to mention a hairline that’s starting to resemble his father’s).
“It’s ridiculous,” Hannon said, shaking his head. “Well, when you live with him [Bob Hannon] for 27 years, what do you think is going to happen?
“Nights like tonight are gonna do it, too. We keep having them.”
Just three days removed from a one-point win over Liberty, the Indians found a way against a bigger, brawnier Brookfield team thanks to 25 points from senior Dylan O’Hara and a solid all-around night from senior DeOnte Brown, holding on for a 47-46 win in front of a packed house Friday at Girard High School.
“Ask him why he keeps winning ugly ones,” Bob Hannon said.
“Well, all wins are pretty,” Craig Hannon said. “We’ll take any wins any way we can. We’re not really equipped for that kind of game, a grind-it-out game, but we found a way to make it our style.”
Neither team led by more than four points over the last 12 minutes, but Girard took the lead for good on a three-point play by Brown with 3:13 left, making it 40-39.
“I saw the open lane and knew it was time to attack,” said Brown, who finished with 11 points and four rebounds. “I just tried to be aggressive, felt the contact and finished it.”
Said Craig Hannon, “That was the biggest play of the game.”
The Indians (10-2, 7-0 All-American Conference Blue) didn’t attempt another shot from the field the rest of the way, making 7 of 10 free throws down the stretch to give them a 47-43 lead with 13.8 seconds left. Brookfield senior Brian Hiner made a 3-pointer with just over five seconds left, but the Warriors (9-3, 5-3) were out of timeouts, which meant the clock continued to run as the Indians looked to inbound the ball. By the time Girard got the ball in with one second left, it was too late to foul.
“I told the team, there are five or six games every year that feel like a heavyweight fight and tonight felt like a heavyweight fight,” Craig Hannon said. “No one gained control. It was just two good basketball teams going at it.”
O’Hara scored 19 of his 25 points in the first 24 minutes, including an off-balance, buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter.
“I slipped a bit, but I knew as soon it left my hand that it felt really good,” said O’Hara, who entered the game averaging 17 points. “That really helped us going into the fourth quarter.”
Girard won the first meeting between the teams, 57-54, on Dec. 9 and Brookfield spent most of Friday’s game slowing the pace even further. But while the Warriors controlled the paint (they out-rebounded Girard 31-23), they committed a combined 14 turnovers over the second and third quarters when they had a chance to take control.
“At times we struggled with their pressure and making decisions, like all teams do,” Brookfield coach Bill Kovach said. “We’ll watch this game and learn from it. Hopefully we’ll see them again come tournament time.”
In the meantime, Girard has a clear path to the league title.
“This gives us a little space in the conference,” O’Hara said. “And it was a tournament atmosphere, so that will help us out, too, come March.”