Published Friday, Feb. 21, 1997
Grove City's Seth Jenny (10) and Rob Hill (25) pressure the ball during a District 10 AAA tournament victory (Jean Angelo/Herald)
Eagles 61
Rockets 48
Eagles whip Rockets, face Harbor Creek
* * *
VICTORS ARE `FLAT' AFTER TIEBREAKER, BUT GET JOB DONE
By Brad Isles
Herald Sports Writer
There wasn't a winning shot at the buzzer or a win by 42 points, but Grove City coach Don Fee will take it.
His Eagles defeated a stubborn Titusville team, 61-48, in the first round of the District 10 Class AAA playoffs Thursday night at Sharon High School.
Grove City advances to the D-10 quarterfinals where they'll face Harbor Creek (22-4), a 62-57 winner over Erie East Thursday, at a site, date and time to be determined.
The Eagles (22-4) were fighting an emotional letdown after they won the right to play the Rockets Monday night when Seth Jenny's 3-pointer at the buzzer beat Hickory in an Mercer County Athletic Conference tiebreaker. Along with that, there was the fact that they handled Titusville (10-14) earlier in the season, 100-58.
``It was certainly a different ballgame tonight,'' Fee said. ``No matter what you tell kids it's tough to get that in their head that it's going to be different.
``I really want to give Titusville a lot of credit. They played an outstanding ballgame and hopefully it's good to get through a game like this where you don't play real well and still get a victory.''
Titusville came after the Eagles early with a 1-3-1 press and it kept the Eagles in check until the fourth quarter when Amos Upshaw took over.
He scored 14 of the Grove City's 19 points in the final quarter, with Jenny putting in the other five. Upshaw finished with 20.
``We couldn't contain him,'' Titusville coach Greg Houck said of Upshaw. ``We don't match up with him very well. He's a great player and we only gave him six points through three quarters. Then in the fourth quarter he went nuts.''
Taking a 42-33 lead into the fourth, Upshaw and Jenny scored consecutive baskets to put Grove City up by 13 and on the verge of another blowout. But the Eagles went on a drought for the next three minutes and let the Rockets back into the game.
Keith Beers hit a 3-pointer to start a 10-0 run that brought Titusville back within three points. Michael Bailey followed Beers' three with a hoop inside and then T.J. Wiley hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game to make it 46-41.
Following a Grove City timeout, Chad Brown hit a pair of free throws to make it 46-43 with 31/2 minutes remaining.
Wiley, who led the Tri-County Athletic Conference with 51 threes this season, finished the game with 15 points to lead the Rockets. Brown chipped in 11.
The rest of the game belonged to Upshaw. Following Brown's hoop, he converted a three-point play, hit from the foul line, and put back his own miss to push Grove City's lead to 53-47. Upshaw, who also had nine rebounds, added four foul shots down the stretch to help the Eagles ice the game.
Upshaw wasn't a factor early and neither were the Eagles as they committed more turnovers _ five _ than they scored points _ four _ during the first five minutes of the game.
With the score tied at 4, Wiley hit a three and, after Upshaw picked up his second foul, Brown hit a foul shot to put the Rockets up 8-4. But Josh Morgan, who had 12 points off the bench for the Eagles, hit two straight hoops to tie the game at 8 at the end of the quarter.
In the second frame, the two teams traded baskets until a Wiley three put the Rockets up 20-18 with 1:40 left until halftime. Morgan countered, however, converting a three-point play with two seconds to go to give Grove City the lead at halftime.
The Eagles could never get into a rhythm in the first half, because of the Rockets' trap and Wiley's shooting.
``We've seen some 1-3-1's but we haven't seen them very much,'' Fee said. ``They played it very well and differently from other teams. They played back in the passing lanes and we really didn't attack it aggressively.''
Titusville started the third quarter with a 10-3 run to reclaim the lead, 30-27. Then, just as it has happened all season, a different Grove City player stepped up to bail the Eagles out of a jam.
Matt Nikoloff hit three shots from behind the arc, including two consecutively to end the quarter and give Grove City a nine-point margin heading into the fourth. He finished with 11 points.
``I really felt that we would come out flat,'' Fee said. ``I just hoped it wasn't to the extent that it was tonight, but I'm glad it wasn't worse. I thought it would take us a little time to get on track and wake up a little bit and make a little run. We did that in the third but Titusville came right back.''
Back to TOP // Herald
Sports // Herald
Home page
Updated Feb. 21, 1997
Questions/comments: herald@pgh.net
For info about advertising on our site or Web-page creation:
advertising@sharon-herald.com
Copyright ©1997 The Sharon Herald Co. All rights reserved.
Reproduction
or retransmission in any form is prohibited without our permission.