Early season high school hoops isn’t supposed to be this good...
A near capacity crowd packed into the Tiger’s Den in Fayetteville Saturday night to watch crosstown rivals Emerson Williams and the Sandy Creek Patriots take on Adam Smith, Maurice Williams and the young Fayette County Tigers.
Four quarters, two overtimes and 194 points later, Fayette emerged as 98-96 victors in an instant classic.
“I’m having fun with this team. Besides Adam and Maurice, we’re very inexperienced,” Fayette Head Coach Andre Flynn said.
“But anytime you can keep your composure to win a double overtime game against a crosstown rival, that’s a good sign.”
The Tigers’ most experienced starter Maurice Williams made the game winning plays. With the score locked at 96-96 and eight seconds remaining in the second overtime period, Smith in bounded to guard L.J. Erves. The junior Chapel Hill transfer nearly lost the handle, recovered and launched a top of the key jumper with four seconds to spare. Erves’ shot was off the mark, but Maurice Williams tipped the rebound. His initial putback didn’t fall, but the ball came right back to the junior forward. Maurice Williams went up again with a second left, this time drawing contact from Creek forward Alex Upshaw.
Williams drained the free throws to win it for Fayette. Smith led all scorers with 37 points. Twelve of those came from the charity stripe, as the referee crew shook the early season rust from their whistles with a plethora of foul calls on both teams. Two of Smith’s free throws tied the game 83-83 with four seconds left in regulation, sending the teams to their first extra frame.
Creek fell behind by double digits in the second quarter but recovered to give the home team all it could handle. At times, the Patriots scored at will in the paint, especially during a monster third quarter run. After trailing by 12 at the half, Coach Rashad Muhyee’s senior-heavy squad reeled off a 16-2 burst to open the third. Emerson Williams scored seven of his team high 30 points during that stretch, which gave the Patriots a 58-56 lead midway through the period. No team led by more than five from that point on.
“They played hard, played together and executed,” said Coach Muhyee.
“We just needed two more points. I’m proud of them. As long as you leave everything on the court, you have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Muhyee’s compromised bench depth may have played a factor in the loss. Senior guard Sean Rowe and senior forward Zachry Smith were in street clothes -- unable to go because of their important roles on Creek’s state playoff football team.
While Rowe’s absence made way for the sweet shooting touch of 5’5” Creek junior Tyler Fields (17 points), Zachry Smith was sorely missed, especially after combo guard Chris Morgan (12 points) and power forward Marques McGill (7 points, 3 blocks) fouled out late.
However, Muhyee wasn’t about to make excuses for the loss.
“This is an experienced team that knows what it takes to win games,” Muhyee said.
“They have their goals -- the first of which is to win the subregion. That means beating Fayette County once region play starts.”
Coach Flynn said the Tigers are focusing on February.
“It will take some time for everybody to get comfortable with each other, but I think this team is going to be in good shape once the playoffs get here,” the Fayette head coach said.
“This game was a step in the right direction.”
Game notes: Some of the most intense battles of the night came in the low post, where Creek’s McGill and Upshaw, and Fayette’s Will Parker and Ekene Anachebe all played well. Anachebe, a 6’8” sophomore center with loads of upside, was the focal point of three of the most exciting plays of the night. With 1:08 left in the second OT and his team up by one, 95-94, Anachebe blocked Creek’s Dominique Lindsey and Emerson Williams on consecutive shot attempts. After the Williams shot was swatted away, Upshaw took Anachebe head on for a go-ahead dunk.
Fayette is now 1-1 on the season, after losing the night before at Creekside. Saturday was Creek’s 2009-2010 debut. The Patriots are 0-1 and head to East Hall tonight. |
