BASKETBALL: Pope's prayer answered - Falcons fall on buzzer-beater at Crab Tourney
Pope County's Matthew Davis hit a running jumper as time expired to give the Pirates a 48-46 victory over Elverado on Wednesday at the Crab Orchard Turkey Tournament, sending the Falcons to their third loss in a row to begin the season.
EHS had just erased a five-point deficit with just over a minute to play, but couldn't get a stop on the game's final possession to force overtime. Davis was well-guarded on the play, but got the shot off and watched as it bounced twice on the rim before falling through the net.
"That was a tough one for us after the first two nights, it would have been nice to have a win," said Elverado head coach Jacob Emling. "We were 3-2 (defensively) the whole game, we didn't want to quit on it because it got us to that point. We got a touch and almost got a steal out of it. That got us scrambling a little bit, we recovered nicely, we had two bodies on him. He kind of threw it up, it took a couple bounces, went in, and it was over."
The Falcons got 9 first-half points from Sage Sarensen and 7 from Aquantez Penn to take a 23-19 lead into the break. They were still playing well when the game resumed, coming out of the locker rooms strong with a 9-2 run to begin the third quarter. Jadyn Christian's three-point play with 4:55 to go in the period made it 32-21, but it would also be the last points the Falcons would score until the fourth.
The Pirates closed out the third on a 13-0 run to grab a two-point lead with eight minutes to play. Sarensen's bucket with 7:26 remaining stopped a five-plus minute drought for the Falcons.
"We were up at halftime, feeling good," Emling said, "and I tried to tell them in the locker room it wasn't over. They understood, we just missed a couple layups, they got a couple shots down, and that was the difference in the third quarter."
"Something I preach is finishing quarters. We got up in the first quarter, second quarter. I'd tell them the quarter's not over, the game's not over. Just shots not falling, them making a couple shots, a couple lapses on defense, taking possessions off, it all kind of got to us and they wore us down over the course of the game."
Pope County had padded their lead to five with Cale Blankenship's inside hoop with 2:06 remaining, but Elverado fought back. Kevin Bruce had a lay-up off of a steal by Penn, Sarensen made one of two free throws after a defensive stop, then Penn sank both of his free throws with 40.4 seconds to play to set up the final possession for the Pirates.
Pope County called for timeout after running the clock down to 15.6 seconds, then nearly turned it over to the Falcons before Davis created a shot opportunity out of desperation.
After making a combined 14 three-pointers in their first 5 halves of basketball in the tournament, the Falcons failed to connect on any in the second half on Wednesday despite several open looks.
"We've been living by three a little bit," Emling said. "The first two games didn't go so well, we came out a little hotter tonight, but in the second half it just wasn't falling for us."
Sarensen led the Falcons with 18 points, Penn added 12, Alec Valerius 7, Bruce 6 and Christian 3. Jacob Floyd led Pope County with 14 points.
Elverado was coming off of lopsided defeats on the first two days of the tournament. On Monday, Dongola defeated EHS 86-44, and on Tuesday the event host Trojans beat the Falcons 76-30.
Against Dongola, Valerius led the Falcons with 13 points, Bruce had 12, Penn 11, Clayton Berger 4, and Christian and Avery Caraker each had 2. In the loss to Crab Orchard, Penn led the way with 11 points, Valerius had 8, Bruce 7, and Berger 4.
Elverado (0-3) is back at the Turkey Tournament on Friday with a 4 p.m. matchup against Joppa, and on Saturday at 4 p.m. against Hardin County.