Fallsnewspress.com - Not again! Falls robbed of win on last-second shot

Photo courtesy of K.M. Klemencic Falls guard Jess Shingleton brings the ball into the forecourt during a game against Hudson earlier this season.

by Frank Aceto

Associate Sports Editor

Cuyahoga Falls -- One of the most encouraging performances of the season will most likely sting the most down the road.

The Cuyahoga Falls boys basketball team, a squad that has seemed to suffer a string of heart-wrenching losses in recent years, saw a potential victory magically vanish in the final seconds.

Thanks to a difficult floater by pint-sized reserve freshman guard Amari Williams, Mayfield escaped with a stunning 53-51 win over Cuyahoga Falls in a Northeast Ohio Conference game Jan. 29 in Falls' gymnasium.

Williams drained the shot confidently near the foul line with 4.1 seconds left.

The Black Tigers, who also lost a 49-36 decision to Padua Franciscan Jan. 30 in Parma, had the final possession, but they needed to go the length of the floor to potentially tie or win the game.

Senior guard DaJon Brown touched the ball last. He got a decent look despite heavy pressure from roughly 30 feet from the basket.

His shot found iron, bounced high over the rim before sailing downward toward the floor as time expired.

Mayfield, which trailed by six (48-42) with a little more than four minutes left, escaped, thanks to a freshman reserve who scored his only basket during the most critical time of the game.

"The kid made a big shot," Falls head coach Rob Slone said. "We've played two games where we played hard enough to win. We're not getting any breaks, but we can't rely on getting breaks. We need to make it happen."

The Black Tigers made plenty of things happen prior to Mayfield's comeback.

The Falls' players opened a few eyes with their execution.

They've seemed to master the ability to cut toward the basket and get easy layups and they've come a long way in terms of making ball fakes and knowing where to be in certain situations.

At times, the original plan didn't go as scripted. Such circumstances would have ruined the possession completely in other games.

This time, however, the Black Tigers seemed to have a Plan B or a Plan C when things went slightly awry.

As a result, Falls dictated the style of play on offense, which led to uncontested layups and wide-open looks from the perimeter.

The Black Tigers usually buried those shots, which allowed them to steadily increase their lead as high as seven (33-26) early in the second quarter.

Mayfield, like most teams, had a height advantage against Falls. The Wildcats used their height to grab rebounds when shots went astray.

That allowed Mayfield to make a few short spurts when its grip on the contest started to slip.

No spurt proved greater than the one the Wildcats made in the final four minutes.

Mayfield trimmed its deficit to two with a couple of layups and after a front end of a one-and-one was missed by the Black Tigers, took its first lead (49-48) in the final quarter on a clutch three-pointer.

That triple came from a very unlikely source.

Reserve senior guard Dominique Braxton, whose most eye-opening trait had been his ability to handle the ball and beat defenders, buried a three from the right side with 2:31 remaining.

Braxton had struggled from the perimeter prior to that. The Edsel was supposed to sell.

"[Braxton] had just beaten us off the dribble two or three times," Slone said. "We wanted to back off him because we thought he was going to penetrate. I didn't think he was going to make it."

Falls, a team that doesn't boast intimidating size or breathtaking speed, has been overmatched in terms of talent quite a few times.

Rarely, though, the Black Tigers run into a team they can expose to some degree.

Earlier in the season, that opponent was Hudson. They got another opportunity Jan. 29.

Falls, which earned a 42-32 win in the junior varsity contest, certainly showed it could only not only play with those teams, but also beat them.

Alas for the Black Tigers, though, such occasions didn't make the scoreboard look any differently from most other games.

"People always say, 'It's about winning and losing,'" Slone said. "I don't buy that. It's about winning.

"When you play as hard as we did, you play for one reason: to win. We need to take advantage of the teams that we match up well against."

Falls senior guard Jess Shingleton had one of his finest shooting efforts of the season as he finished with a game-high 16 points, including four three-pointers. His final triple from the left corner tied the game at 51 with 20 seconds left.

Brown scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half as the Black Tigers had a 27-21 lead.

Senior guard Kyle Koski was Mayfield's best option in the second half as he scored 11 of his team-high 15 points.

Senior guard Paul Mann added four first-half three-pointers on his way to 12 points.

Brown led Falls with 13 points against Padua.

The Black Tigers are scheduled to visit NOC foe Medina Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m.

E-mail: faceto@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-686-3914