by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
WILLIAMSPORT — Piketon battled back from an 11-point deficit to knock Westfall out of the Southeast District Division III tournament 39-38 Monday night.
The Mustangs scored the final five points of the second quarter to lead 19-13 at the half. A basket from Jeremiah Layton and a three-pointer from Jacob Hicks pushed the Westfall advantage to 11 points midway through the third.
Piketon closed back to five on a pair of Declan Davis three-pointers. Westfall added a free throw and then Piketon put in two. Another three from Hicks and a pair of free throws from Brenden Tuttle had Westfall up 30-21 with 16 seconds left in the third. Piketon’s Brent McGuire came down and put in a bucket with four seconds left to make the score 30-23 entering the final period.
Westfall opened the fourth with a free throw from Tuttle, but the next six points were scored by the Red Streaks. After a bucket by Westfall’s Bryan Craig, McGuire hit for two with five minutes to go and then sank a three a few seconds later to give Piketon its first lead — 34-33 — since early in the first quarter.
The Streaks’ comeback was fueled in part by forcing five Westfall turnovers in the first three and a half minutes of the fourth.
Hitting three of four free throws, Piketon got up 37-33 with 1:12 left.
Quinn Eberly responded for the Mustangs by hitting a basket, getting fouled and then he hit the free throw to pull his team to within a point with a minute left.
The Red Streaks were moving the ball around and running time off the clock when they turned the ball over with 30 seconds on the clock, giving Westfall a chance to retake the lead.
And with 7.2 seconds left, Henry Barnes went to the line and hit two free throws to put Westfall back on top.
After a timeout, Piketon inbounded and got the ball to Davis who drove down the right side of the lane and put it in with two seconds left.
After the basket, each team took a timeout to plot strategy and when Westfall went to inbound the ball, McGuire was able to jump the passing lane for the steal to secure the win for Piketon.
The Mustangs were playing with some different faces after losing leading scorer Brody Clark to an injury last week and starter Brydan Gall was unavailable Tuesday night.
“The whole game, we’re playing incredibly shorthanded and I’m incredibly proud of the effort and so many different guys stepping up and making huge plays when their number is called,” Westfall coach Kyle Joseph said.
One of those players stepping up was Hicks who led the Mustangs with 11 points Monday night. He made appearances in 11 varsity games in the regular season and had 15 points in those appearances.
“Jacob played four quarters of JV all year. He had big free throws going back to Logan Elm at the beginning of the year, we were in foul trouble and he comes in and got a big foul shot at the end of the game. I think at Southeastern, he got thrown in there,” Joseph said. “In meaningful varsity minutes, I don’t know that last time he played — it was probably at least a month ago.
“As coaches, when we know we have to jumble things around, we’re not surprised at all that he came in and did that.”
Eberly was another player stepping up. With only five varsity appearances in the regular season, he converted the three-point play with a minute left to make it a one-point game.
“It was a huge and-one, he makes the foul shot,” Joseph said. “These were like his first meaningful, meaningful varsity minutes and he comes up with a huge play and forces a turnover down here in the corner.”
After only three turnovers in the first half, the Mustangs had three in the third quarter and seven in the fourth.
“We knew that playing down some guys, we couldn’t turn the ball over,” Joseph said. “They were being physical, getting up in us. They were trapping some and it got us a little bit sped up.”
Along with 11 from Hicks, Tuttle had seven, Craig and Jeremiah Layton each had six and Barnes had five.
Layton led the Mustangs with seven rebounds and Barnes and Craig each grabbed five.
McGuire led Piketon with 14 points and Davis had 10. Davis also had eight rebounds.
The Mustangs finish the season with a 14-9 record, and they finished fourth in the SVC with a 9-5 league record.
It is the end of the first season at the helm of his alma mater for Joseph.
“Me coming in my first year, I couldn’t be any more proud of the effort of all the guys,” Joseph said. “The five seniors (Barnes, Clark, Gall, Layton and Lance Chalk), the way they led every day, the way they came out here and played and accepted roles. I’m super proud of them. We didn’t reach all the goals we wanted, but they have absolutely nothing to be — they won 14 games last year and 14 this year, and I don’t think that’s been done at Westfall in a long time.
“Three straight years of winning records here (11-10 two seasons ago), they’ve laid a tremendous foundation. They put our younger guys in a great spot to be successful going forward.”
Piketon 39, Westfall 38
Piketon — Mason Thacker 2-0-5, Brent McGuire 6-1-14, Treven Shanks 1-0-2, Declan Davis 3-2-10, Garrett Legg 1-2-4, Bo Henry 1-2-4. Three-point goals — Hinton, Shook, Kocher, Winter (3), Piccirillo, Williams (2). Total — 14-36 7-12 39.
Westfall — Bryan Craig 2-2-6, Brenden Tuttle 1-5-7, Quinn Eberly 1-1-3, Henry Barnes 1-3-5, Jacob Hicks 4-0-11, Jeremiah Layton 3-0-6. Three-point goals — Hicks (3). Total — 12-26 11-20 38.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Piketon 8 3 10 16 39
Westfall 12 7 11 8 38
