PDS SLIPS BY RAMS
PRINCETON — Don’t take the Hightstown High boys basketball team lightly.
It is easy for opposing teams to get caught up watching the rhythmic style head coach Don Hess has his team playing.
Princeton Day School almost did for too long yesterday and nearly paid the price.
Instead, the Panthers found their own rhythm just when it looked as though the Rams were going to pull out their second impressive win in less than 24 hours to defeat Hightstown in overtime, 45-41.
“This is a game we should have won,” Hess, the Rams’ 34-year general, said. “We had a six-point lead with the ball and we gave it away.”
After losing two games at the buzzer already this season, Hightstown (3-4) has had other frustrating losses, but this one appeared to be all but locked up.
Langston Glaude had hit consecutive jump shots to bring PDS even at 29 with 4:27 left in the fourth quarter, then the Rams put together a daggerlike spurt.
Freddie Fitch drove the length of the court to scored immediately after Glaude’s tying basket. Taylor Chappell entered the game and scored inside, then Cole Fusik converted a drive off glass to give the visitors a 35-29 edge with 3:28 to go.
But the Panthers neverwent into hiding. Instead, they kept trying to free up leading scorer Davon Reed. With Hightstown still up, 38-32, with 1:48 left after Ryan Borden hit a pair of free throws, Reed went to work saving his squad. First, he hit a 3-point field goal with 1:24 left to cut the lead in half. Then he came back with another long range bomb with 45.2 seconds left to knot the score.
“Davon’s special,” PDS -year head coach Paris Mclean said. “This was a good character win for us. The kids had been off from school 16-17 days over the break, so they were a little flat today. For 28 minutes, we couldn’t solve them. But when we got it to OT, I thought we had the legs because Hightstown had just played another game down to the wire the night before.”
The Rams pulled out a 39-36 win at Hamilton Tuesday night, but Hess did not use that as an excuse. Instead, he felt that his guard-laden team with no starters taller than 6-foot-2 should have been able to respond better.
“Our guys have bought into playing good defense,” Hess said. “I thought they even played good defense on Reed, who is 6-foot-5, even though he had 29 points. He makes his whole team better.”
The Rams had better offensive balance with Fitch leading the way with 15 points, Chappell added 11, and Fusik chipping in 10. But the Panthers (8-2) took the visitors a little more seriously over the final 5:30 of the game, including four minutes of overtime, to outscore Hightstown, 13-3, at the end. All 13 of those PDS points came from Reed. Fusik 3-2-10, Chappell 2-7-11, Borden 0-3-3, Parrish 0-0-0, Scott 0-0-0, Reddington 0-0-0, Fitch 6-0-15, Spearman 0-0-0, Preston 1-0-2. Totals: 12-12-41. Cook 0-1-1, Poltrak 0-0-0, Dreed 10-7-29, Brittingham 0-0-0, Dudeck 0-0-0, Jugo 2-2-7, Glaude 4-0-8. Totals: 16-10-45.
H-fitch 3, Fusik 2; PDS-REED 2, Jugo.