GL rally falls short against Coahulla Creek
Down 10 points early in the fourth quarter, the Gordon Lee Trojans made a furious rally in the final period, but saw the comeback fall three points short in a 50-47 home loss to Coahulla Creek in Tuesday night’s season opener.
The Colts led 14-10 after one period and took a 29-23 lead into the locker room. They maintained the sixpoint cushion entering the final quarter and opened up a 4232 advantage in the opening stages of the fourth.
But midway through the period, the Trojans would right the ship. A 6-0 run cut the gap to four with less than four minutes to play and a Kannen Derryberry trey pulled Gordon Lee to within three points with 2:01 remaining.
The Colts led 4845 in the final minute when Gordon Lee forced a turnover under the Colts’ basket. Derryberry drove hard to the hoop and connected on a lay-up that sliced the deficit to one with 32 seconds to play.
Tyler Phillips was fouled with 15.7 seconds to go and calmly made both shots to get the Colts’ lead back to three. Following a Gordon Lee timeout, Justin Wooden would get an open look at a
game-tying 3-pointer from the corner. He would miss, but Jacob Dyer was able to bat the rebound back to the top of the key.
Wooden corralled the loose ball as time wound down, but his off-balance shot at the buzzer found only the side of the rim as the Colts escaped with the victory.
Gordon Lee head coach Alex Disbrow said protecting the ball in the final quarter gave his team a chance to get back in the game.
“We didn’t turn the ball over as much in the second half,” he said. “I haven’t looked at the stats yet, but I bet we turned it over close to 30 times (in the game). If we don’t turn the ball over, we probably win it. But give Coahulla Creek lots of credit. They kept testing our defense and kept attacking the help side on the pick-and-roll.”
Phillips and Gavin Steele each had 18 points for Coahulla Creek, while Derryberry had 10 of his game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers. Dyer finished with eight points and Hayden Murphy added seven in the loss.
“Expect for the pick-and-roll, I was still pretty pleased, defensively,” Disbrow added. “(Coahulla Creek) has two really good ball players (Phillips and Maddox Adams, who was held to single digits in scoring) and we did a pretty good job against them. But we have to be mentally tough and take better shots. We all can’t be the hero. We have to learn our roles better.”
Gordon Lee (0-1) will test itself this Friday with a non-region game at Heritage. Tipoff is scheduled for approximately 8:30 p.m. The Trojans will play on Saturday against Dade County. The girls’ game will begin the afternoon with a 4 p.m. first jump.