R-S Central steals two wins from West

R-S Central steals two wins from West

By Jeremy Trantham
Times-News Staff Writer

Published: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
Michael Justus/Times-News
R-S Central’s Shaquille Wilkins tries to stuff West Henderson’s Adam Troutman on Tuesday during a game at West.

Heartbreak came to West Henderson’s gymnasium on Tuesday night as R-S Central’s girls and boys teams came away with a pair of last-second wins.

Quatez Fuller got a steal in the backcourt on an inbounds play with 4.9 seconds remaining in the boys game and hit a layup for a 65-53 win while Melissa McLaughlin drove down the middle and rolled in a runner with 15.4 seconds remaining to give the Lady Hilltoppers a 45-44 victory.

Fuller’s steal and basket capped a tight nightcap which saw Central battle back from a five-point fourth-quarter deficit.

“I take the blame for that,” said West coach Rob Bliss of the final play. “I put us in a bad position and should not have done that. I didn’t make a good decision with how we wanted to get the ball up the floor.”

“Quatez came up big in the fourth,” said Central coach Greg Wright. “During the timeout we talked about him staying back to stop the long pass and then coming up if his man got the ball.”

Fuller scored 10 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth.

West’s Colby Thelen hit a pair of free throws with 26.7 second remaining to tie the score at 63-63 and when Central threw the ball away with 4.9 seconds left, it looked as though the Falcons would at least take the game into overtime.

But Fuller converted on West’s sixth fourth-quarter turnover to drop the Falcons to 2-2 on the season.

Matt Roberts hit three of West’s seven 3-pointers to finish with a team-high 15 points while senior Adam Troutman added 13. Kevin Thomas had 10.

West built an 18-10 lead at the end of the first quarter but Central opened the second with a 12-0 run.

“We didn’t take great care of the basketball and for whatever reason we continue to refuse to run offense,” Bliss said. When we ran offense we got good things. When we decided to play playground basketball we played right into their hands.”

Roberts tied the score at 29 entering halftime with a late 3 and the Falcons came out blazing in the third quarter to build a 37-31 advantage.

Central battled back behind Fuller. The final five minutes saw three ties and three lead changes.

It was the second straight loss for a young Falcon team which has just one returning starter in senior Daniel Hyatt, who had eight points.

“We’re still trying to figure out what we do best and how we do it,” Bliss said.

He said he hoped to have things figured out by Christmas.

The Lady Falcons provided a fitting prelude.

West held a 42-32 lead with around five minutes to play before Central staged a furious comeback behind an intense pressure defense.

West faltered down the stretch with a slew of turnovers and no field goals in the final five minutes.

McLaughlin got the closing 13-2 run started with a free throw. A Lady Falcon free throw with 2:48 to play stretched the lead back to 10.

After Mclaughlin hit a pair of foul shots with 1:32 to play the Lady Hilltoppers trailed 44-40. Then Mercedes Davis canned a 3 to give her eight points on the night.

With time winding down, Central cleared out for McLaughlin, who drove down the lane for the game-winner, her only field goal of the game.

After another near-turnover near midcourt, West inbounded the ball with 3.2 seconds remaining but the final desperation heave fell short.

Erica Cantrell scored six of her game-high 12 points in the first quarter to help West build the lead. Kaitlin Burton and Chelsea Turlington each scored seven points for West, which falls to 0-4.

Shannon Hines scored a team-high 11 points for Central, which had four players score at least eight points.

West returns to action on tonight against rival Hendersonville in a rescheduled game.

Summaries

BOYS

CENTRAL (65) — Miller, Lynch, K. Holmstrom 10, Lynch 3, Foster 9, Littlejohn 2, Wilkins 6, Q. Fuller 22, Carson, Kinlaw, J. Fuller, C. Murray 10.

WEST (63) — Embler, Thelen 8, Young 6, Roberts 15, Williams 3, Shaw, Reeves, Troutman 13, Thomas 10, Hyatt 8.

Halftime: Tied 29-29.

GIRLS

CENTRAL (45) — Whitesides 2, Hines 11, McLaughlin 8, Logan, McDaniel, Edgerton 8, Davis 8, Miller, Crenshaw 3, Case 3, Twitty.

WEST (44) — Kremer 5, Cantrell 12, Burton 7, Turlington 7, Bishop 4, Stewart, Ciarimiataro 2, Rogers 5, Dinardo 5, Meyer 2.

Halftime: West, 22-16.