Pierre-Louis’ buzzer-beater gives Titans another win

Lorain put its unblemished conference record on the line Jan. 9 against the defending Division IV state champion, Lutheran East, and with eight seconds to play in regulation, Taevon Pierre-Louis drove the length of the court and laid the ball in as time expired to give the Titans a 66-64 win.

It was the first game in a while that Lorain (8-1, 4-0 Lake Erie League) played relatively consistently the entire 32 minutes, and Lutheran East gave it everything it had.

With nine seconds on the clock, the Falcons’ Dominic Braswell sank his fifth 3-pointer of the night to tie the game, 64-64, but Pierre-Louis took the inbounds pass all the way to give his team

yet another down-to-thewire win.

“Before the half I had jacked up a shot when we needed a bucket, and towards the end (of the game) we needed a bucket,” Pierre-Louis said. “Coach always tells me get to the basket and that’s what I did. I got to the basket and made a big-time play.

“Last year, I played a little bit of JV and I had another opportunity like that and I made the shot against Cleveland Heights. It’s just my confidence.”

“He’s smart enough to know that with eight seconds to go, you just take the

ball to the rim and you’re going to hopefully get fouled or score the basketball and, luckily, he saw an opening, he scored the ball and it was ball game,” Lorain coach John Rositano said of the play. “That was a very savvy play by a guy who’s been around our program for a while.”

With just over two minutes remaining, the Titans took a 59-58 lead before E.J. Farmer’s 3-pointer put Lutheran East up two, but as he has done all season, Devone Grant hit a clutch 3 with 1:24 to play before Jordan Jackson hit a pair of free throws on 1-and-1 to make it 64-61.

It’s not the first time Jackson has been at the free-throw line in a pressure situation. The sophomore

made 1-of-2 in the waning seconds against Vermilion to help Lorain win its season-opener against the Sailors, and he has only gotten better.

He finished with 16 points and six rebounds while Grant had a gamehigh 25 points and PierreLouis 13.

“It’s like I’ve been saying all year, we get contributions from up and down the lineup and that’s how we manage to win,” Rositano said. “You can pick out a big play right down the list of all our guys who’ve contributed.”

Lorain returns home Jan. 12 for a showdown with Cleveland Heights (63, 3-0) with the top spot in the LEL up for grabs, and the team is prepared

for another intense, close matchup against a quality conference opponent.

“These are tough games,” Rositano said. “I mean, you drive on the road, Tuesday night against the defending Division IV state champs and they’re good. They’ve got good players, they’re well-coached and it’s another game where we just found a way to win it.

“Winners always figure out ways to be successful and that’s what these guys are doing. We’re very confident down the stretch in close games that we’re going to come out on top because we’ve been in so many close games, not just this year, but in the past we’ve found ways to win and this is just another example of that.”