Judges Boys Edge Colonels, 43-42

Posted: January 3, 2015
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — It was a game full of exciting plays, but also plenty of uncharacteristic mistakes, but Handley was able to dodge a huge bullet Friday night in a 43-42 Northwestern District boys’ basketball win over James Wood.

Perhaps the biggest number of miscues, which affected both teams, came at the foul line. The Colonels shot a dismal 3 of 8 from the line, but the Judges shot even worse, hitting only 1 of 13 free-throw attempts.

Despite Handley’s enormous edge in foul shooting deficiency, it was Wood that suffered the most from its inability to hit a free throw. Twice in the closing moments of the game the Colonels went to the line with a chance to take the lead and they failed to connect both times.

“This was a really hard fought game by both teams,” Wood coach Tim Wygant said. “Both teams made a lot mistakes tonight. We just happened to make the last ones. In the long run though, this is the kind of game that will make us better. There was a lot of pressure out there.”

Unable to penetrate the Colonels’ zone defense, the Judges challenged Wood to a game of chicken in the final minutes of play. With 5:29 left in the game and Handley (2-9, 1-2 Northwestern) holding a tenuous 41-39 lead, the Judges decided to freeze the ball.

The Colonels (4-5, 0-1) responded by staying in their zone, waiting patiently for the Judges to make a mistake. Wood prevailed, at least at first, forcing Handley into a poor shot, and then grabbed the rebound.

“We were having a little trouble with their zone defense,” Handley coach Jason Toton said. “We had the lead, and felt like we could take them if we could get them to come out. In the end it worked out for us.”

Fouled with 4:32 left, Brady Hepner hit the second of two free throws to narrow Handley’s lead to 41-38.

The Judges responded by freezing the ball again, this time for two minutes, but a layup by Colonel guard Jacob Potter closed the gap to just one point, 41-40, with 2:30 to play.

“That was a good stretch of the game, but it didn’t affect the outcome,” Wygant said. “We make our free throws and we win.”

With two minutes left on the clock, Wood got its first chance to take the lead when Colonel guard Chandler Brooks stepped to the line for a one-and-one. Brooks, however, missed the first free throw.

Both team exchanged baskets over the next minute, then with 40 seconds left, Brooks was fouled again with his Colonels trailing 43-42. Unfortunately for Wood, the Colonel freshman missed again, sealing the win for the Judges.

“That ball bounced on the rim so many times, I thought it was sure to go in,” Wygant said. “When a ball acts like that, it usually goes in. It just didn’t this time.”

All four quarters, however, were an intense battle where neither side was able to mount a comfortable lead.

Wood jumped ahead 6-2 over the first four minutes of play, only to watch as the Judges slowly, but steadily, responded. By the end of the first quarter, Handley had taken a 12-8 lead thanks to the shooting of KeSean Robinson.

The Judges senior guard scored six of Handley’s 12 first-period points, and led the Judges with 20 points for the night.

Wood rebounded in the second quarter, behind the 3-point shooting of Colin Watts and Brooks. Both hit 3-pointers during the period, and contributed 10 of Wood’s 12 points in the quarter.

Although Handley got another six points from Robinson, the Judges missed all six of their free throw opportunities during the first half, and only led by two, 22-20 at the half.

The third quarter proved to be a repeat of the first two, as both teams fought fiercely for the lead. The Colonels did manage yo take and hold the lead through most of the period. Brooks put Wood up 24-22 just a minute into the second half, and the Colonels held the lead until the Judges put together a 5-0 run over the final two minutes of the period to lead 33-32 with just eight minutes to play.

“We’ve been in every game this year, we just haven’t been able to finish,” Toton said. “Luckily, things fell our way for once.”

Besides Robinson, Handley’s Gus Wise also scored in double figures with 12 points, including two 3-pointers.

Brooks led the Colonels with 11 points. Potter, Watts, and Branson Ratlief all scored eight points for Wood.