Baylor’s Tip Lifts Pioneer Boys To Win Over Wood

Posted: February 3, 2016
By WALT MOODY

WINCHESTER — Millbrook’s Taryk Baylor picked the right time to make his only basket of the game.

By the time his shot dropped through the net, there was no time left.

Baylor’s tip-in at the buzzer snapped a tie and gave the Pioneers a thrilling 54-52 triumph over James Wood on Tuesday at Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

Baylor’s bucket capped a pair of regular-season thrillers between the two rivals, both won by the Pioneers in the waning seconds.

This time it went down to the final second in a see-saw battle that featured 15 lead changes.

The Pioneers (14-6 overall, 5-2 Northwestern District) entered the final quarter with a tenuous lead as they struggled mightily with the Colonels’ 3-2 zone defense and foul trouble.

James Wood took advantage. Chandler Brooks’ drive with 3:14 left gave the Colonels their first lead of the half at 45-44. A Brooks free throw pushed the margin to 46-44.

But then Donte Weaver, who missed Monday’s one-point overtime loss to Handley with a medical issue, came alive.

Weaver drilled a 3-pointer from the right side to put the Pioneers up by a point, but baskets by Robert Jackson and Brooks pushed the Wood lead to 50-47.

Weaver then stepped around a pick and nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key to tie the score at 50 with 1:23 left.

Brooks made one of two free throws to push the Colonels ahead, but Weaver, a left-hander, made an off-balance, right-handed floater to put Millbrook ahead 52-51 with just under a minute left.

“At times like that, my teammates look at me to make a play,” Weaver said. “That’s what I did for them. ... I had to do whatever I could do to keep us in close.”

“This is the guy we want with the ball in his hands every time,” Millbrook coach Derek Butler said of Weaver. “That’s a senior point guard who relishes those moments and I was proud of the way he stepped up tonight.”

Brooks was fouled again and again made one of two to tie the game with 42.7 seconds left.

The Pioneers elected to hold for the final shot and with just under 10 seconds left began to look for the game-winner.

Weaver found Jordan Funk, who got a good look and a running shot from the right baseline, but his shot banked hard off the glass and off the front of the rim.

Baylor came crashing in from the left and just got a hand on the rebound flipping it up and in just ahead of the buzzer.

“I just saw it coming off hard and I was going going in to get at least a putback,” Baylor said of his first-ever game-winner at the buzzer. “I was happy to be there. It was a difficult shot. I barely got my hand on it. I just tried to toss it in real quick because I knew the time was about to go off.”

Butler said the play worked as was initially designed and Baylor did his job after the miss.

“That play is designed to go either to [Jordan] or Alex [Amos] because they’re going to have to help on Donte. We kicked it there and got a look like we wanted and Taryk did what he is supposed to do and crash the boards. That was a great tip-in and great redemption for him because he had a frustrating game being in foul trouble all game. That’s special for a senior.”

After the two close games, James Wood coach Tim Wygant joked with Butler afterwards that when the rivals play that they should just put a minute on the clock and both squads in the double bonus to see who wins.

The problem for his club (12-7, 2-4 district) has been its foul shooting down the stretch. The Colonels finished 10 for 24 from the line, including 5 for 11 in the last quarter.

“Neither team shot well from the free throw line,” Wygant said. “We’ve actually made more shots from the field than our opponents [a 20-19 edge against Millbrook Tuesday] in 14 of the last 15 games. It’s just the free throws. In other words, make the free throws and it’s a different story in a lot of those other games.”

The Colonels got out to a blazing start, thanks to Brooks and Jackson. Brooks had nine points and Jackson added five as Wood grabbed a 16-11 lead.

The Pioneers were able to rebound in the second thanks mostly to Jordan Funk. The sophomore guard had 13 of his 16 first-half points in the period. Trey Braithwaite’s alley-oop basket at the buzzer gave the Pioneers a 29-26 lead at the break.

Both teams shot poorly and turned the ball over numerous times in the third quarter. Aidan Houser’s 3-pointer got the Colonels to within 38-37, but Weaver’s drive with three seconds left pushed the margin back to 40-37 entering the final quarter.

Funk did not make a basket from the floor in the second half, but led his team with 19 points.

“He had a heck of a game,” Butler said of Funk. “He wore down a little. He played a lot of minutes last night and I didn’t take him out of the game once tonight. With all of the foul trouble, he was the one constant out there.”

Brooks netted 22 for the Colonels, but struggled going 5 of 14 from the line. Jackson added 15.

Wygant said he was proud of the way his team defended.

“The kids ran it well,” he said of the 3-2 zone. “It did give us a chance to win. They’re a very quick athletic team and sometimes it’s tough to guard a quick athletic team off the dribble. It gave us the best shot to win tonight and we literally came up two seconds short.”

Millbrook snapped a two-game losing streak in which the Pioneers lost a pair of fourth-quarter leads.

“It’s a comeback for us,” Weaver said. “Things are going to start brightening up for us and get better. ... It helps the team be more confident down the stretch that in bigger games we can make those plays again.”

“We hope it propels us,” Butler added. “You want to be playing your best basketball at the end of the season. The conference [21A] tournament starts next Saturday and we have to be ready for it.”

Wygant said that everyone has a chance in the conference tournament.

“It depends who gets hot,” Wygant said. “It depends on who lands the most amount of punches. Everyone is landing them. Every once in a while a team will run out of time or will have a glancing blow. I think that’s what happened for us tonight.”

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