|
Eagles' hot shooting hurts SR's playoff hopes
By Mike Kilroy
Eagle Staff Writer
GROVE CITY — The fans were in full throat, the teams were playing fast and physical and everyone at Grove City HighSchool knew what was on the line.
It's only January, but Tuesday night's Grove City-Slippery Rock boys basketball game had a decided March-like playoff flavor to it.
The Eagles used a fast start and some scintillating shooting to earn a 71-56 victory in a game neither team could afford to lose.
"This was a must win," said Grove City coach Don Fee, who is never prone to exaggeration. "If we lost this game, it would have been very difficult for us to bounce back from a psychological standpoint."
Grove City (14-7 overall, 5-3 in the region) jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first quarter.
Slippery Rock (13-8, 3-5) then had little success trying to cut into that 10-point deficit.
That's because the Eagles' shooting percentage resembled a typical Tom Brady passing line. Grove City was 22-of-33 from the field after three quarters and ended up connecting on 62 percent of its shots.
"One thing we couldn't afford tonight was if they caught fire," said Slippery Rock coachSean Strickland. "If they are at home, and they are on fire, we don't have a real good chance of beating them anyway."
Grove City sophomore guard Patrick Johnson hit his first six shots from the floor and finished with 19 points. Center Maxx Stutz added 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting.
Only two Eagles shot worse than 50 percent.
"We hit some big shots," Fee said. "We had a lot of different guys hit for us. I thought, offensively, that was a big key."
Grove City led by as many as 14 points late in the third quarter before Slippery Rock made a final run.
The Rockets cut the lead to 56-51 with a little more than three minutes remaining in the game, but the Eagles closed with a 15-5 run to secure the win.
"I'm so proud of these guys," Strickland said. "They kept fighting. I guarantee you no one and their brother thought we would be down by just five points with three minutes to go,"
Both teams had key players in foul trouble throughout, but when Slippery Rock senior Zack Ejzak fouled out with three minutes left in the game, the Rockets fizzled.
Ejzak finished with 23 points.
"If they don't foul Zack out, it's a different game," Strickland said. "We have a bunch of kids who fight, but they need their leader. Don't kid yourself. Everyone knows, including officials, that that's our leader."
WithEjzak out, Slippery Rock was missing its top three scorers down the stretch. For the second straight game, seniors MattShearer and Brian Kelly were on the bench in street clothes.
At the Slippery Rock School Board meeting Monday, the parents of both players appealed to the board to reinstate their sons.
Daniel Shearer, Matt's father, said at the meeting that the two players were suspended from the team for the season by SlipperyRock principal Harry Beil after they received citations from the state police for underage drinking at a party in Grove City last week.
Board members didn't respond to the request Monday.
Strickland said the two players are still members of the team. It remains unknown whether Shearer and Kelly will play again this season, however.
Solicitor Tom King said such suspensions usually last for 20 percent of the games or, in this case, the last five games of the season.
Strickland offered no comment on whether the two players would return should the Rockets make the playoffs, which is now in doubt after this loss that dropped The Rockets a half-game behind Titusville for the final postseason spot.
"My only comment on this situation is we are dealing with 17- and 18-year-old kids," Strickland said. "It's a shame their personal lives are put out there like this."
Eagle Staff Writer Kris Miller contributed to this story.
Back |
|
|
| |
|
