Perry loses on JFK buzzer-beater

Willie Johnson beat the buzzer with an inside basket as Cleveland JFK rallied to stun host Perry, 4342, in the nightcap of the opening round of the twoday Perry Holiday Tournament on Dec. 22.

The Eagles trailed, 41-36, with 2:14 remaining after a basket by Markeio Bouldin, and were still down by four, 42-38, when Perry’s Jake Reid split a pair at the line with 1:41 to play.

Sir Anthony Keyton scored with 54 seconds remaining, then Boudin split a pair of free throws to make it 42-41 with 36 seconds to play. The Eagles rebounded a Pirate miss, then called time out with 9 seconds left to set up the final play.

“Well, it’s exciting, you can see our kids acting like they’ve never been there before,” Cleveland JFK coach William Morrow said with a smile.

“They needed that to start to build some confidence. Basically, we just kept pushing, kept playing hard. We played a little better defense (in the second half), and switched our press a couple times. We wore them down a little bit with our man-to-man trapping press. We were fortunate enough to have that last shot.”

Cleveland JFK (3-5) held a 38-33 rebounding edge, and both teams turned the ball over 22 times while struggling to generate offense.

The Eagles led, 13-12 early in the second quarter, but didn’t lead again until Johnson’s buzzer-beating shot. Mychale McCrary led JFK with 14 points, while Bouldin finished with 13.

Perry led, 22-20, at halftime, and led for the entire second half except for two occasions — when the score was knotted at 31 late in the third, and then again at the final buzzer.

Freshman Jaylen Anderson led Perry (3-2) with 12 points. Matthew Cool had 11 rebounds, and Jake Reid had 7 rebounds and 3 steals.

Perry coach Al Iacofano credited the Eagles, and noted some of the difficulties the Senate League team posed for his young squad.

“We turned the ball over (late), and that had a lot to do with Cleveland JFK’s pressure,” Iacofano said. “They did a nice job scrapping, they got 50-50 balls, and second-chance opportunities. They kept fighting and competing, and turned us over a couple times, and that obviously did us in.”

“It was a concern of ours coming in. We knew they had some length and some athleticism, and that put our young guys in some tough spots. We didn’t handle it very well tonight. Part of it is on us, but I still want to give them credit for turning us over and making buckets when they needed to. They made shots in the last minute and a half and we didn’t.”

Marrow knows his Eagles will face another tough challenge in the South, which beat NDCL in the night’s first game.

“They get the ball up and down the court,” Marrow said of South. “They’re always looking to push the ball, so we’re going to need to get back on defense. They’ve got two bigs that are strong inside, and a guard, I think he was number 23 (Hughes), he’s awesome. We’re going to have our hands full, but we’re gonna show up.”