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East comes from way behind to down Fitch in OT
AUSTINTOWN
Trailing by as many as 17 points in the third quarter, the East High School boys basketball team rallied to tie the contest at 86 on a three-point goal with just seconds remaining in regulation and then went on defeat Fitch 103-101 in overtime.
It all went awry for the Falcons when they started missing free throws late in the fourth quarter. Fitch missed three of their last four, all with a little more than a minute left in regulation.
And in the overtime session the Falcons missed five of six from the charity line.
“The kids know what happened, we just didn’t make our free throws down the stretch,” Fitch head coach Brian Beany said. “You can practice free throws all you want, you just can’t simulate that pressure in practice.
“And when it comes down to putting them in, in a game like that, you just got to make them.”
East led 19-18 after one quarter and Fitch raced out to a 43-29 halftime advantage behind Emanuel Dawkins’s 11 second period points.
Dawkins and Cole Constance led the Falcons in scoring with 11 at the intermission. Dawkins finished with a game-high 31.
Fitch held on to an 11-point lead after three at 65-54 before East finally found their stride in the fourth.
The Golden Bears pumped in 32 fourth quarter, comeback points highlighted by Dejon Rogers’ 3-pointer before time ran out to send the game to an extra session.
That’s when junior Kemon’dre Muhammad and senior Tim Williams took over the game and helped seal the victory. Muhammad had 21 of his team-high 27 points after halftime while Williams had 17 of his 21 points after the intermission. Rogers also had 18 of his 22 points after the break.
“Mr. Muhammad and Mr. Williams, they’re two guys that I expect big things from them,” East head coach Dennis Simmons said. “They showed up tonight. But we got to get better, that’s the thing, every game we got to get better.”
Simmons thinks his team is going through some growing pains as they improved to 3-0.
“We’re learning to become resilient,” he said. “These kids as freshman were a part of a two-win team so their learning to win.
““But we didn’t play any defense tonight, we gave up 101 points. But if we can defend and get that stuff done we’ll be okay,” Simmons said. “We’ve got to stop spotting teams, we dug ourself a hole tonight. But we’re getting mentally tougher and we’re learning how to win.”
Beany was happy with his team despite the tough loss as the Falcons dipped to 1-1.
“It was a heartbreaking loss,” Beany said. “But I’m proud of those guys. I’ve been doing this a long, long time and that was one of the craziest games I’ve ever been involved in, 103-101.
It’s crazy in high school basketball to score that many points and both teams did it. They didn’t quit, we didn’t quit. This was a good high school basketball game.”
East had 11 players in the scoring column
“When you play 15 guys that actually learn how to play, you got guys you can rotate,” Simmons said. For the Falcons, Dylan Beany chipped in 24 points in the losing effort.