Published Wednesday, Feb. 26, 1997
Blue Devils 58
Tigers 48
George Jr. falls to consolation
By Brad Isles
Herald Sports Writer
ERIE _ For the George Junior Republic basketball team, it was just one of those nights _ one of those nights they'd like to forget.
``I don't know whether we took them lightly or it was the long drive or what,'' said Tigers' coach Bob McConnell. ``We just looked like our legs were in cement. They were beating us off our feet, beating us to the balls, that's pretty much it.''
Cambridge Springs won its seventh consecutive game by beating George Junior at its own game and downed the Tigers 58-48 in the District-10 semifinals Tuesday night. The Blue Devils (21-5) next will play Greenville, 49-39 winners over Union City, in the D-10 finals at a date, place and time yet to be determined. The Tigers (15-11) will take on Union City in the consolation game.
George Junior's Jamal Benjamin fires from long range. (David E. Dale/Herald).
George Junior got its usual game from Jamal Benjamin, 20 points, but the rest of the squad was noticeably down.
Cliff Bradley added 13 points and Mike Brown, who worked his way back onto the team after reportedly being suspended for the remainder of the season, chipped in seven points off the bench.
The Tigers' imposing trapping defense, proved unusually pourous as the Blue Devils worked the ball inside and despite being undersized on paper, the Blue Devils beat George Junior on the boards and got several second-chance points because of it. And when they didn't score, they got fouled and that proved important down the stretch.
Battling inside for Cambridge Springs was a pair of 6-footers, Mike Mitchell and Brad Wheeler. They were up against 6-5 Shane Keen and 6-4 Benjamin.
``Loose balls and rebounds were the key,'' McConnell said. ``They were getting a lot of second shots and we weren't getting any. That seemed to me to be the whole difference in the game.''
Unable to react quickly to the ball, George Junior was often left to foul, another thing the Blue Devils benefitted from. They finished the night 23-for-28 from the line, paced by Mike Wilmoth's 12-of-13 effort. He finished with 18 points to lead Cambridge Springs and was integral to a key Blue Devils' icing the game down the stretch.
Wilmoth was 7-for-8 from the line in the fourth quarter, all coming with less than 21/2 minutes left.
He followed an Adam Jardina basket with two foul shots to make it 50-39 with 2:25 left. After Bradley pared the lead to nine, Wilmoth again pushed it back to 11, 52-41.
The Blue Devils repeated gave GJR the opportunity to get back into the game, ironically from the foul line. But where Cambridge Springs excelled from the charity stripe, the Tigers were the opposite, making just nine of 19 attempts. They were 2-for-7 the last five minutes of the game.
The only thing stopping the Cambridge Springs from putting the game out of reach in the second quarter were consecutive hoops by Brown and an Antonio Collins putback that cut a 25-18 Blue Devils' lead to three heading into the half.
Prior to that, Matt Wheeler followed a Mitchell putback with a pair of free throws increased a 16-14 Blue Devils' lead to six.
Benjamin countered with a hoop for the Tigers, but a 3-point bomb by Ivan Cilik and a pair of Wilmoth freebies made it 25-16 and gave Cambridge Springs its biggest lead to that point.
In the third quarter, the Tigers were able to get within two points, 30-28, with five minutes left in the frame. But that would be the closest they would get the rest of the way as Mitchell hit inside and Cilik had another 3-pointer to push the lead back to five. Cilik finished with 16 points off the Spa bench.
``To be honest, defensively we were just putrid,'' McConnell said. ``When you play that poorly defensively and don't get any of the loose balls and rebounds, you don't have the opportunity to run and get cheap baskets. I don't think we got very many cheap baskets.''
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Updated Feb. 27, 1997
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