Sports - January 2004

Wolves lose heartbreaker to Cavs

By JOHN MARK BROOKS, Staff Writer

————————————

Basketball is a game of inches, a game of breaks. Call it luck or good fortune, but whatever it is East Rutherford had it Tuesday night.

Trailing most of the night, the Cavaliers got a game-winning hoop with eight seconds left to inch by Lincolnton 49-48.

The Wolves jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead within the first three minutes. With 3:27 left in the first period they had extended that lead 10-2 with an Eric Wilson three-pointer.

An Adrian Logan jumper with 1:19 remaining in the quarter made the score 10-5, Wolves’ advantage. The Cavs could only manage seven points the rest of the quarter.

The Wolves defensive intensity was up, and had done a good job defending Curtis Jackson the Cavaliers big man. Josh Keener, along with help-side defense held Jackson to only two first quarter points.

An Eric Wilson free throw extended the Wolves’ advantage to 13-7 with 6:24 left in the second quarter. The Cavs led by Jackson, who had six points in the quarter, narrowed the margin to four, 17-13, with 3:30 remaining.

However, Darren Wilson scored six straight points for a 21-15 Lincolnton lead with a little over two minutes to go in the first half.

The two teams went into halftime with the score 21-17 Wolves.

Two minutes into the third quarter a Keener layup made the score 25-17. With 5:03 left in the third a Jordy Jefferies layup extended the Wolves lead to 10 for the first time in the game and an upset was looking promising.

But the Cavs refused to go quietly, reeling off a 7-0 spurt to make the score 27-24. However, a Cavs player was whistled for a technical foul after expressing his dislike for a foul call.

Darren Wilson made two free throws to put the Wolves back up five 29-24 with 3:06 left in the third quarter.

A Dusty Friday jumper with 1:55 remaining put the Wolves up 33-26. Jawan Hamilton was quick to answer with 30 seconds left getting his Cavs to within five 35-30.

Eric Wilson ended the third quarter with a pull-up jumper and things looked promising for the Wolves up 37-30 through three periods of play. Wilson had six of his 11 points in the third.

The fourth quarter, unfortunately for the Lincolnton faithful, was mostly Cavs.

A Hamilton three-point play, not even a minute into the final quarter, followed by another Hamilton layup and Jackson layup erased the Lincolnton lead deadlocking the contest 37-37 with 6:08 left.

Head coach Bob Cowie had seen enough and wisely called a time out to stop the momentum.

Trae Ross, for East Rutherford, nailed a three-pointer. Zack Gibson then hit a layup to make the score 44-41 East’s lead with 4:45 remaining in the game.

Ross, who saved the game almost single-handedly off the bench, connected on another three-pointer to put East Rutherford up 47-41 with 3:32 left.

With the Cavs up 47-43 with 2:24 left, the Wolves possession ended with a shot that was too strong and missed. 

East Rutherford had the ball. As they tried to set up a play Gibson quickly jumped out on the ball handler and forced an over-and-back violation giving Lincolnton possession with under two minutes to go.

Darren Wilson, basked in the moment, nailing a three-pointer from the left wing to draw the Wolves within one 47-46.

After a Cavs’ score with 38 seconds left, Jefferies jumped in the passing lane and stole a pass. He then hit a streaking Gibson for a layup that gave Lincolnton a 48-47 lead.

The Cavs called a timeout and set up a play holding for the last shot. They held the ball nearly thirty seconds before Logan drove to the hole.

A Lincolnton defender tried to step in and draw the charge, but Logan nailed a left-handed banker to put the Cavs up one.

The Wolves hurriedly inbounded the ball. Gibson hesitated then drove the length of the floor for a 15 foot runner with time expiring. The shot was too strong as the clock went to zero. The Cavaliers had escaped with a win moving their overall record to 14-2 and 7-0 in the Midwest 2A Conference.

The loss ends Lincolnton’s seven game winning streak and makes them 11-4 on the year and 3-2 in the Midwest 2A Conference.

Darren Wilson had a game-high 18 points, while teammate Eric Wilson scored 11 for the Wolves. Jawan Hamilton led scoring for East Rutherford.

Wolves head coach Bob Cowie was happy with team, but disappointed by the end result.

“It was a tough one to lose. We played well at times and didn’t play so well at times. We showed a lot of courage to get back in it at the end to go up by one, then they hit a tough shot. We had a similar shot that I thought was going in that didn’t go in,” he said.

Cowie said he had forewarned his team about how little details could prove to be the difference.

“We talked about that at the beginning of the game how small things were going to be big at the end. That one turnover in the third quarter, that one missed block out were going to be big at the end,” he said.

“There was a stretch there in the second half where we were up eight or 10, but we fell asleep a couple of times. They got a couple of turnovers on the press and several offensive rebounds on the same possession,” Cowie said.

Lincolnton- Zack Gibson 4, Darren Wilson 18, Eric Wilson 11, Jordy Jefferies 4, Josh Keener 6, Brant Eagle 2, Dusty Friday 2.

East Rutherford- Juwan Hamilton 14, Tion Watkins 2, Trae Ross 6, Adrian Logan 10, Frank Easton 7, Curtis Jackson 10.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

Terms and Conditions