By Chris Stevens, Editor
It was looking bleak for the St. Elizabeth boys’ basketball team in Saturday night’s championship game of the A.I. duPont Tiger Tip-Off Classic – down 45-24 in the third down thanks to an incredible shooting display from Tiger guard Ivan Martin, that had him outscoring the Vikings by himself (27 to 24).
Bleak turned into bliss as St. E rallied to force overtime and dominated the extra session for a stunning 68-62 win and the first place trophy.
“These are tough kids who don’t give up,” Vikings coach Mike Cassady said. “This was actually the first time I didn’t lose my mind at halftime. I told the guys there are no 20-point plays so we just have to chip away and that’s what they did.”
“We wanted to slow the game down,” said senior point guard Kye Rawls, whose 10-point outburst in a three-minute stretch of the fourth quarter helped pull the Vikings close. “We focused on getting stops, getting to the free throw line and making our shots.”
The Tigers (1-1) got off to a hot start behind Martin, who rained in 27 first-half points as a part a 39-22 first half advantage. After a layup by Isaiah Moore pushed the Tiger lead to 21 (45-24) in the third quarter, both Rawls and junior forward Jermai Herring led a 32-11 burst, capped by a Rawls three to tie the game at 56 with just under 3 minutes to play. The game was tied at 58 when Martin (the game’s high scorer with 35 points) dove for a loose ball, recovered and flipped to Marc Handy who drove for a basket to give AI a 60-58 lead with 21 seconds left. After a St. E turnover, the Tigers couldn’t run out the clock and on a mad dash to the basket, Herring drew a foul with 1.1 seconds left.
“I was nervous, I’m not going to lie,” he said after the game. “But big time players make big time shots and I needed those. We needed those.”
True to his word, Herring made both free throws to force overtime and scored the winning basket just 33 seconds into OT. The dagger came when Rawls drove left and found Leamond Pierce for a step-back three that opened up a five-point lead.
“This lets us know we can come back from anything and we can beat anybody in the state,” Rawls said.
Check out the highlights below:
St. Mark’s 57, A.I. duPont 39
Junior guard Sophia Messick and sophomore forward Lauren McDonald led the Spartans to the girls’ Tip-Off title with 23 and 13 points respectively. The Spartans never trailed as Messick scored 14 first half points, including the last 7 in the second quarter to push a three-point lead to 10 at the break.
“We work hard every day in practice to be ready for the games, so to win this tournament is great – we earned it,” Messick said.
Junior guard MyMy Trader led the Tigers with 15 points.
Check out the highlights below:
