Defense spurs JFK win against Howland
By ERIC FORTUNE
WARREN
Although Warren JFK’s Alec Burzynski and Evan Boyd scored a combined eight points, their impact was immense.
What they created on defense was invaluable as the Eagles came back from an eight point halftime deficit to win a thriller 71-67 over the Howland Tigers.
“They bring a new element to us,” Warren JFK coach Mark Komlanc said.
“They freed Byron [Taylor] up. He was like a defensive back and got some steals. They just brought a whole new element. I felt they were good on the boards, but Alec just harassed them out there. We owe it to them, nothing else. There were no adjustments. We just played smarter with them two guys.”
Kennedy (13-7) stayed in the game behind Justin Bofenkamp’s 20 points. He finished with a game high 30 points.
He seemed to have the big shot to keep Howland (7-14) from breaking the game open at numerous times in the first half as Connor Tamarkin scored 11 points for the Tigers during that stretch.
The Tigers had opened a 32-20 lead late in the second quarter after a Tamarkin bucket.
Bofenkamp came back to score the next five points for the Eagles to stall the momentum.
“We felt good at the half, but we knew they were going to come out at us hard,” Howland coach Dan Bubon said.
“You still have to score. There was still 50 to 60 possessions left in this game. You just have to keep playing.”
The game changed drastically when the Eagles came out with a 12-0 run to flip the score less than two minutes into the quarter.
“We came in the third quarter with an eight point lead. We missed a couple of layups and the lead evaporated,” Bubon said.
“We got the ball right inside, we just missed. Their length bothered us some at the rim. [Taylor] had a great block for them. [Nate] Leventis got all the way to the rim. I thought it was a for sure bucket.”
The Tigers were able to hold serve and battled back to make it a tied game at 46 heading into the final quarter.
Kennedy and Howland traded buckets throughout the first five minutes of the final quarter.
The Tigers built out the biggest lead at this point, 52-48, only to see the Eagles take the lead again on a 12-4 run to make it 63-56 with 2:22 left.
Bubon felt the Eagles were able to get up on Tamarkin and just get their hands on him, push him, ride him, and wear him out as he scored just six points in the second half.
Howland still got it within three with 1:13 left and then again with 10.8 seconds left but couldn’t find that last big shot as a Nate Woods free throw made it a two possession game with 8.5 seconds left.
“If you play disciplined half-court defense and rebound the ball which we are capable of doing, we can get out and run,” Komlanc said.
“That is the only change we did in the second half.”