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Girard Indians somehow survive Wildcats’ frantic comeback
By Steve Wilaj
Struthers
Don’t ask Craig Hannon how Girard held on to beat Struthers, 63-60, Friday at the Struthers Field House. The third-year Indians coach simply doesn’t know.
“No idea,” Hannon said. “We didn’t do anything right in the last 1:06. I know that. We did nothing right. They just missed a shot.”
Trailing by three with nine seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats received the final possession. In an attempt to cap their furious rally and send the contest to overtime, Ray Phifer’s pass found an open Austin Yemma, who had 16 points and nine rebounds.
But Yemma’s 3-pointer bounced off the front of the rim.
“We just missed the shot,” first-year Struthers coach Jimmy Franceschelli said. “We drew up the play and got the shot we wanted. They’re high school kids and we don’t expect them to make every shot, but that obviously would have been a nice one to go in there.”
That miss allowed Girard (14-3) to exhale after it watched its eight-point lead with 1:25 remaining slowly slip away.
“In that situation, all you have to do is take care of the ball and make free throws and we really didn’t do either,” Hannon said.
The Indians entered the fourth quarter with just a one-point advantage before building their lead to 60-52 with 1:25 left.
But after a free throw by Yemma, Struthers (9-8) stole the inbounds pass and Andrew Carbon connected on a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to four. A jumper by Carbon — who scored 17 points off the bench — then trimmed it to 60-58 with 48 seconds remaining.
The Indians promptly missed two free throws, but were able to force a Wildcats turnover. Girard’s Christian Bello then made a free throw, before a layup by Phifer — who finished with 20 points — made it 61-60 with 11 seconds remaining.
Indians forward Dylan O’Hara then nailed two free throws before Yemma’s final miss.
“That was very poor execution at the end,” O’Hara said. “Luckily Christian knocked one in and I knocked in two. And I thought I fouled [Phifer] on the last play [during his pass], but I guess I didn’t. But they couldn’t knock down that 3, so we pulled one out.”
O’Hara paced Girard with 18 points and nine rebounds. Chaston Williams added 15 points off the bench, DeOnte Brown scored 11 and Tyler Kilbourne added 10.
Hannon praised O’Hara for his defensive prowess on Phifer.
“As far as a two-way player that can affect the game without having to score, he’s as good as I’ve seen in my playing and coaching career,” Hannon said. “Dyl may not look like a great defensive player, but he is.”
O’Hara’s defense helped Girard race out to a 32-27 halftime lead. But Struthers cut the deficit to 43-42 to end the third before making its final push.
“That was obviously a little bit of heart there at the end,” Franceschelli said. “We finally got our kids to play a little harder than we’ve been playing recently.”