Eastmoor survives close calls against City South rival
Eastmoor Academy put its superior height and length to great use in a City League South Division showdown against South on Tuesday night, blocking or altering a bevy of shots, crashing the boards and dunking several times in transition.
But what the overflow crowd at Eastmoor will remember most vividly was the heated action away from the basket in the waning seconds of the Warriors’ 67-65 victory.
After South’s Wesley Williams sank two free throws to force a tie with five seconds left, Eastmoor guard Randy Olverson dribbled down the sideline and drew a foul that had Bulldogs fans howling.
“They had me trapped with two guys and I was in trouble, to tell you the truth,” Olverson said. “Fortunately, the ref blew his whistle and bailed me out or I would have gone out of bounds.”
Olverson calmly sank both free throws with two seconds left to give the Warriors the lead.
“I honestly don’t let pressure get to me,” he said. “Basketball is just a game after all. Plus, we shoot a lot of free throws in practice to prepare for these situations.”
The 5-foot-7 dynamo, who scored a game-high 22 points and impacted the game with his ball-handling, passing and hustle, committed a slight booboo, though.
“The strategy was for Randy to miss the second shot so they wouldn’t have a chance to inbound it, but he made it,” Eastmoor coach Jim Miranda said.
Added Olverson, “As soon as it left my hand, I said ‘darn’ because I knew it was in. I’ve never been in a situation like that like before.”
Subsequently, South ran the length of the baseline in hopes of getting an Eastmoor player to foul on a back screen; a collision occurred but no foul was called. A length-of-the-court shot by Taquan Simington didn’t come close, and Bulldogs coach Ramon Spears dashed across the floor to argue the no-call.
“In a game of this magnitude, for the ref to call a foul like that with two seconds left was surprising, to put it kindly,” Spears said. “Then, we run a perfect inbounds play to draw the charge, and their guy knocks our guy over and there’s no call. If you’re going to call one, call the other one, too.”
The game pitting last season’s South co-champions featured nine lead changes and four ties. Eastmoor (4-1, 3-0) led by as many as nine points in the third quarter, but South continually fought back.
In the final two minutes, Olverson tossed a lob to Taevion Kinsey for a dunk and nicely fed Stanley Williams for a basket. South damaged its chance by making only 4 of 12 foul shots in the fourth quarter.
“Our main focus is defense and we didn’t play as well as we could tonight, but we were able to pull out the ‘W’,” said Kinsey, a Division I prospect who scored 18 points. “It’s always a tough scrap against South.”
Tre’ohn Watkins had 17 points and Wesley Williams 16 for South (4-1, 2-1). Von Cameron Davis scored 24 of his career-high 43 points in the second half to pace visiting Walnut Ridge (2-4, 2-1) in a rout of Briggs (4-2, 1-2) in the City South.