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All Austin as Indians rally to beat Warriors
By DAN HINER
GIRARD
The Girard boys basketball team had trouble scoring in its game against Brookfield, but an 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter was just enough to give the Indians a 55-44 win on Friday night.
Girard (9-9, 7-3 All-American Conference, Blue Tier) couldn’t find an answer for the Warriors’ zone defense in the first three quarters. Girard head coach Craig Hannon said the team’s plays were designed to attempt 3-pointers, but the Indians couldn’t make any of their shots from behind the arc.
“A lot of plays we designed against the 2-3 [zone] are from 3, but we just didn’t shoot it real well,” Hannon said. “But we attacked the rim on that run and made things stretch out. I think when we attack the rim, we’re just a better team.”
Brookfield (5-13, 2-7 All-American Conference Blue) held the Indians to eight points in the third quarter. The Warriors didn’t shoot well, but they cut the Indians’ lead to 32-28 going into the fourth.
But Girard sophomore Austin O’Hara stepped up at the start of the fourth quarter. O’Hara scored five points, came up with a steal and forced the Warriors into foul trouble during that critical 8-0 run.
After the Indians had the lead, Girard continued to add points from the free-throw line. In the final 2:13, Girard shot 10 of 18 from the line.
Hannon said it wasn’t the team’s best performance from the free-throw line, but senior Anthony Graziano helped get the job done. Graziano shot 7 of 8 from the line and finished with 12 points.
“Really it was one guy, Anthony Graziano [who] came in, stepped up and hit big ones for us,” Hannon said. “He’s a senior, he should do that. It’s his job description as a senior. I’m proud of him because he was able to do that for us tonight.”
Brookfield seniors Chad Filipovich and Brian Hiner tried to get the Warriors back into the ball game. But Girard held the Warriors to 4-of-11 shooting from the field — and 0-of-4 from 3-point range — in the fourth quarter. Most of Brookfield’s 16 points came from layups and free throws.
Warriors head coach Shawn Hammond said the team played well, but still needs to work on its continuity and holding onto a lead.
“I thought we played well minus one stretch. They play really good defense. We had a hard time getting into a rhythm, getting into our offense,” Hammond said. “We kept plugging, battling — just one bad stretch. We talked about it before, that’s been our Achilles’ Heel — the first 32 minutes. We had some leads going into the fourth quarter, but then, we kind of let them slip away.”
Hiner finished with a double-double, finishing with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Filipovich added 13 points.
O’Hara and guard Austin Clausell combined to score 35 points. Clausell led the Indians with 18 points and three steals. O’Hara had 17 points and 11 rebounds.
“We’ve been talking a lot this year — ‘we’ve been young, we’ve been young’ — well Austin O’Hara and Austin Clausell have done a lot of growing up,” Hannon said. “I’m really happy with the progression of Austin O’Hara as a scorer. He does everything else well, but as a scorer, he’s really gotten better. I just think he needs to be more aggressive, and once he figures some other things out, he’s gonna be scary.”