Dragons claim 4th straight title
scored 11 of his 13 points down the stretch — might not have been the flashy reason why Allderdice won. But it was a contributing factor.
“They played as hard as they could and did what we asked them to do and came up with clutch shot after clutch shot,” Obama Academy coach Devas Simmons said. “They had a young man make 9 of 10 free throws to keep them in the game. They just won it. We didn’t lose it.”
Williams’ consistency only came about as a byproduct of the dramatic plays from Strothers and Ogbonna that defined the game.
At the end of regulation, Allderdice (16-8) appeared have the game won when Jackson Blaufeld stepped back and ripped a straightaway 3-pointer to give the Dragons a 44-42 lead with 13 seconds remaining. Then Strothers coolly drifted over to the right corner and nailed a long-distance twopointer at the buzzer to tie the game, 44-44, and send it to the first overtime.
This time, Tavonne Davis hit the back end of a two-shot foul to put Allderdice ahead, 56-53, with 7.0 seconds left. The Eagles responded quickly as Strothers pulled up on the fly at the top of the key and drained a 3-pointer that extended the game to a second extra period.
“With shots like that, you don’t know if your kids are going to get deflated,” Allderdice coach Buddy Valinsky said. “It was some of the younger kids that stepped up and said, ‘We got this,’ and … Strothers, the 3-point shot, we knew he was going to shoot it, we set up our defense, our kid had him tough, and he still shot it and, great shot. It happens.”
Instead of getting deflated, Allderdice took it as a challenge. Trailing 62-59, Ogbonna, who finished with 21, hit his second 3-pointer of the second overtime to tie the game with 32.9 seconds left. After Trez Jones hit two free throws, Ogbonna scooped a layup in with 1.5 seconds left to push the game to the third extra period.
“To be honest, I just envisioned myself as the 2016 [NBA] champion [Cleveland] Cavaliers and thought of Kyrie [Irving] and I thought, if I was going to go out, I was going to go out shooting,” Ogbonna said. “Actually that was my mentality and, like my man Kyrie said, let it go.”
Even at the end, Obama Academy (13-9) had an opportunity to win. Allderdice had a one-point lead with possession, but the Dragons turned the ball over with less than seven seconds left.
Of course the ball went into Strothers hands, and it appeared for a moment that he had a third last-second shot left in him to add to his game-high 24 points. But the Dragons got back on defense and forced a turnover with 4.6 seconds left and sent the ball into the frontcourt to close it out.
“He played big time, and that’s why I didn’t call timeout when we had the ball last because he went to go make a play and it didn’t work out,” Simmons said. “He has the heart of a lion and won’t let his team down and will never stop fighting.”
Both teams will move on to their respective PIAA tournament. Allderdice, a finalist in Class 4A a year ago, will play McDowell in the District 6-8-10 regional semifinals Friday at Carrick while Obama Academy will face the yet-to-be determined District 10 champion March 3 at Allderdice. Still, despite its predecessors, thist might have been the title they least expected.