By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
BUCHANAN - It was missed free throws that decided the outcome of Saturday's non-league contest at Buchanan against a visiting Georgetown, Ontario Canada team.
Buchanan edged out the the much taller visiting Rebels, 47-45, to improve to 5-4 on the season, despite missing eight free throws in the final minutes of the game. But the Rebels also found it hard to sink their charity tosses in the closing seconds to send the game into overtime.
The Rebels who nearly outsized the Bucks by three to six inches had front court players at 6-foot-6, 6-foot-5, and 6-foot-4” with their guards standing in at six-foot and 6-foot-3”. Buchanan's tallest player is Taylor Johnson, a 6-foot-3 senior.
But the smaller Buck team pounded the ball down low despite the size disadvantage. “We spent a lot of energy in Friday's game, but one thing we emphasized in the locker room before today's game was to try to get a little bit better ball movement offensively,” Buchanan coach Reid McBeth said. “I thought early in the game we did a nice job of moving the ball. We can't take our man one- on-one to the basket, we have to rely on our teammates and hopefully we can continue to get better. Today was an improvement from last night.”
Buchanan opened up a ten point lead, 26-16 with a minute to play in the first half and went in with an seven point lead 26-19 at the break.
Buchanan's Marquis Hall and Jeff Kyles who are both only six-feet tall, pulled down nine and eight rebounds respectfully and the team finished with 30 rebounds. Georgetown pulled down 34, 15 off the offensive glass.
Buchanan's free throw shooting in the final quarter could have salted away the win but only hitting 4-of-12 in the final four minutes allowed the Rebels to hang around.
The Bucks held a one point lead, 41-40 at the four minute mark. Hall connected for the Bucks final field goal of the game with 3:36 to play to give Buchanan a 43-40 advantage. The Rebels pulled the game to within one on a 3-point basket by Gavin Viray-Cox, his only basket of the afternoon, with 24 seconds to play.
Eric Cole hit one of two from the charity stripe to give the Bucks a two point lead, 47-45, with 20 seconds remaining. Georgetown's Viray-Cox had two opportunities to tie the game from the line.
The first came with 11 seconds shooting one and the bonus. Viray-Cox missed the first and Hall came down with the rebound and was fouled with 7.6 seconds to play. Hall's two free throws came up short. Viray-Cox was fouled at mid court bringing the ball up with nine tenths of a second on the clock. He stood at the line with the opportunity to send the game into overtime, his first shot of the bonus rimmed out and the Bucks hauled in the rebound for the win. Buchanan finished 11-of-23 while the Rebels where 5-of-11 from the free throw line.
Kyles and Hall led the Bucks each scoring 13 and Jordan Lee finished with 11 with Kyles dishing out six assists and collected three steals.
Dalton Olinoski finished with a game high 24 for the Rebels. Georgetown committed 28 turnovers which McBeth contributes to the pressure, get in your face defense. Buchanan finished with 18 miscues.
Georgetown 8 19 30 45
Buchanan 9 26 34 47