To view game action photos, visit the photo gallery by clicking on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
By Brian Weaver
You could see two words in their eyes. In their slumped shoulders. In their tears.
Two words permeated every ounce of the Central Bucks West boys’ basketball team after their heartbreaking, double-overtime loss to Glen Mills in the game that would have sent them hurtling into the PIAA state playoffs:
Not again.
For the second time in three years, West lost in overtime in a game on the cusp of the AAAA playoffs, this time dropping a 60-57 decision to the No. 12 seeded Glen Mills Battling Bulls in the last game of the District One playback round for the ninth and final spot in the state bracket.
Lavander Johns hit a three-pointer from the left wing with one second to play to down the snake-bitten Bucks, leaving them empty, no company but disbelief.
With 3:33 to go in the game, Reills Reichwein – the Bucks’ top outside threat – hit a trey to put West ahead 42-31. Everything was going their way. Moments before, Bulls center Aaron Murray had clanged a dunk attempt off of the back iron. So far, it had been that kind of night for Glen Mills.
The lower seed trailed 18-2 after the first quarter, their offensive effort stymied by West’s defensive scheme and frustrated by their perimeter shooting. They missed their first five attempts from three-point range.
Meanwhile, West’s Pat Furst dropped nine of his 15 points in the first quarter to lengthen the lead. TheBulls had gotten within three in the third quarter only to see the Bucks run off nine of the next 11 points. The Bulls leaned heavily on their outside play as West did their best to neutralize six-foot, 11-inch Aaric Murray, the soft-handed Glen Mills center.
While Murray pulled in his 14 rebounds – 10 of them in the second half – he managed only 14 points, markedly shy of his 33-point explosion in the Battling Bulls’ last game, an 82-44 destruction of Bayard Rustin. It was up to Miles to pick up the slack.
“Our game plan was basically to drop five guys on Murray, and we were going to make the other guys beat us,” Chris DiLullo said. “I think we played our game. Some shots don’t fall and they hit some shots.
“We executed the game plan we wanted to,” Bucks’ head coach Adam Sherman shrugged afterwards, not making any excuses for the Glen Mills runs in the second half.
West dared the lower seed to beat them from the perimeter, and after starting the game cold, the Battling Bulls did. They turned to guard Reggie Miles, who dropped a game-high 23 points, all of them coming after halftime. The entire second half, he had kept Glen Mills close. His coach, Craig Mellinger, explained that all it took to get Miles to go crazy in the second half was getting him to calm down.
“Reggie got too excited,” Mellinger said. “I kept telling him to calm down, and I sat him down for a few minutes.”
Then it happened.
The Bucks missed the front end of a one-and-one. In the breathless minute that followed, Glen Mills sank a three, steal and layup. Another layup. The baskets kept coming.
The crowd, a raucous West frenzy after Reichwein – who finished with a team-high 19 – converted, got even louder, but this time the decibels came from the other side, a stunned Glen Mills half of the gym that could do nothing but marvel at the unthinkable. Another failed conversion of a one-and-one, and it was Murray on a put-back. After the dust had settled, the Bucks were reeling. The Bulls had gone on a 14-0 run.
Glen Mills 45, West 42.
Bedlam. Confusion. Disbelief. But no surrender from West.
The Bucks regrouped, and Chris DiLullo hit three free throws over the last minute to tie it back up at 45 with just 19.7 seconds remaining. Glen Mills got off three shots in the midst of tipped rebounds and bodies jumping, falling, and rolling for rebounds, but none fell.
Overtime saw parity take over. After the Battling Bulls took a four point lead, DiLullo, not usually one to launch a three, drained a trey to get the game to 51-50 Glen Mills.
“Chris DiLullo is that good,” Mellinger said. “He’s a great player, and he’s a tough matchup for anybody. He’s going to make plays.”
Miles hit two free throws to put the visitors back up with just over a minute to play, and West called a timeout to regroup their thoughts. It didn’t work. So with 38.2 seconds left, they called another one.
This time, success.
Kimonte Dago, given the task of guarding Reichwein, had been a blanket to the Bucks’ shooter for the entire overtime. But with 26 seconds left, Reichwein used a Joe DiLullo pick to get open on the right wing and made the most of it, sending the game into another overtime.
The second overtime, just as even, went back and forth until, with 14.7 seconds left and the score tied at 57, the Battling Bulls called their final timeout and Mellinger went back to basics.
“We just wanted to give the kids a framework, something we work on from December through now,” he said. “We give them something to work with that maybe they can reverse one or two times. We wanted to get it to Aaric, but we couldn’t get it there.”
Instead the ball ended up with Johns, and the quick-releasing outside threat made no mistake, draining the three-pointer with exactly one second left, just a short increment of time but one sure to feel like an eternity to the Bucks.
A dejected Chris DiLullo couldn’t hide his disappointment, his high school career now behind him.
“You put so much work in over three years, and we’ve been so close,” he mused. “We’re proud we played hard, but it just stinks.”
GLENN MILLS 60, CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 57 (2 OT)
Glenn Mills (60) - Reginald Miles 8 6-7 23; Tyrik Gass 1 2-2 4; Keimonte Dago 0 0-0 0; Lavender Johns 3 0-0 9; Aaric Murray 7 2-2 16; Anwar Crump 0 0-0 0; Cashmere Baugh 0 0-0 0; Shakim Armstead 0 2-2 2; Darnell Plummer 0 0-0 0; Alexis Rosario 1 0-1 2; Drew Baptiste 2 0-0 4. Totals 22 12-14 60
Central Bucks West (57) -Shane Tyksinki 1 3-5 5; Chris Dilullo 5 3-5 14; Patrick Furst 4 5-6 15; Reills Reichwein 7 0-0 19; Joe Dilullo 1 0-0 2; Bill Carroll 0 0-0 0; Chris Blair 0 0-0 0; Ryan Dyer 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 11-16 57
Glen Mills 2 9 16 18 8 7-60
Central Bucks West 15 4 15 11 8 4-57
- Log in to post comments
0
