Final shot by England sinks Bulls in Holy Ghost opener
BucksLocalSports Editor At one point, the Firebirds held an 18-3 halftime edge only to see it dwindle down to a single point by the end of the third period. Now, here Holy Ghost Prep was with 40 seconds left in its season-opener Friday night at Truman and nonleague rival Glen Mills held the game in its hands with possession of the ball. The Bulls took advantage of the situation too, hitting a 15foot shot off the glass with 25 seconds left to take a 3230 edge.
Now, Yardley’s own gack halmes – the only starter back from last season’s Firebirds team that won a district championship in its third trip to the D-1 finals – held the game in his own hands. Taking the inbounds pass in the backcourt, halmes – with a defender draped all over him – nearly dribbled all the remaining time off the clock.
With 7 and 1L2 seconds left, however, halmes drove the ball into the paint, dishing it off to junior Matt England, who not only drained the game-tying bucket with three seconds left, drew the foul and hit the game-winning point on an ensuing free throw.
After being outscored nearly 2-1 after the intermission, the Ghost escaped the Tigers gymnasium with a narrow 33-32 victory. Not coincidentally, halmes led the ‘birds with 13 points. England was next with 10. Additional scorers for the Ghost included wahir Watkins (7 pts.F, Benny Obaze (2F and Greg Wozniak (1F.
“They were kind of asleep in the first half but man, in the second half, they came out with a huge punch,” said halmes. “We tried to bring it back together in the second half and give them a real game and they just came back at us so hard.”
“They played much more
aggressive man-to-man in the half-court; they started face-guarding kids and they got in your face.”
Turnovers hurt the Firebirds in the second half, enabling the Bulls o mount their comeback effort.
“ft’s the first game so probably a little bit of nerves,” said halmes. “ft’s not really holding us back but we’re trying to keep turnovers to a minimum.”
Glen Mills was paced by senior gah-Bree Alleyne with 11 points, Shiheem Spencer with seven, and Quadir jones with six. Senior gay-Re gackson (5 pts.F and sophomore Daye-Shon Barnes (3F also contributed to the scoring effort for the Bulls.
Ghost met the host team Truman Saturday in the Tigers Tipoff Tournament championship. Glen Mills went up against Walter Palmer Charter – which dropped a nine-point game to the hosts in Friday’s nightcap – in the consolation bracket.
fn that one, Truman led 29-23 at the half and outscored the Lions 15-10 in the third period on its way to a 56-47 triumph.
Senior Merdick Green fff, who registered 18 points before the intermission including 8-of-10 from the charity stripe, poured 25-of-31 free throws into the bucket to lead the Tigers’ scoring effort with 29 points. Senior Brandon Amparo was next with nine points with six of those coming down the fourth-quarter stretch including four consecutive free throws in the closing minutes of the contest.
Senior Abdul Olatunboson added eight points though his effort was rather streaky with four points coming in the opening minutes of the game and the other four coming in the initial moments of the sec- ond half. Marcus Palmer (4 pts.F, Lucas Waters (3F, Shareef Clinton (2F and gai’er Brown (1F also contributed to Truman’s season-opening victory.
The Tigers are coming off a 10-13 season, a thirdplace finish in the Suburban One League (SOLF National Conference and a first-round District One tournament ouster while the Firebirds are following a campaign in which they went 29-2 while capturing another Bicentennial Athletic League (BALF title and the District One Class AAA championship.
According to halmes, this season is a horse of a different color for the Ghost, however.
“Last year’s key to success was you had guys who played together all four years. This year it’s definitely about the new guys.”
“f think we’re capable of being just as competitive as last year. ff we can get better game by game, f think we have a legitimate shot at competing for the district title.”
UPDATE: Truman edged the Ghost Dec. 8 in comeback fashion to take the tournament trophy. The Ghost led the Tigers by narrow margins after every period but the last. A 3-pointer by HST sophomore Lucas Waters drew Truman within a point (37-36F in the wild and woolly fourth quarter, a stanza in which the Tigers outpaced the Firebirds 23- 19. Senior Merdic Green followed with a steal and a layup to give Truman the lead for good. HGP senior gack halmes and junior Matt England were co-scoring leaders for Ghost with 15 points each.
Holy Ghost outpaced Truman, 54-36, in last season’s tipoff tournament championship. The Tigers defeated Palmer in their 2011 opener by an almost identical score (57-46F.