James Wood Boys Rally From 21 Down To Stun Handley

Posted: January 16, 2016
By MARK SAWYER
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Over the last four games both the James Wood and Handley boys’ basketball teams have struggled with each losing three times.

Both teams were hoping to change their fortunes and get back on the winning track in their first meeting this season Friday night at James Wood’s Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

Early in the first half the Judges built a 21-point lead and appeared well on their way of duplicating the 30-plus point beating their girls’ team put on the Colonels earlier in the evening.

However, the Colonels had other ideas and staged a comeback for the ages by putting together their best half of basketball this season over the last 16 minutes.

James Wood had just two leads all night, but the second one came with only eight seconds remaining when senior Andrew Hinebaugh buried a pair of free throws to put the Colonels up 53-52.

After two timeouts the Judges got off a pair of shots at the buzzer but both were short and the Colonels celebrated their first Northwestern District win of the season and an important Conference 21A victory.

“We hit some free throws,” James Wood coach Tim Wygant said. “Andrew makes free throws all the time in practice. He really concentrated and he came up big. All of our guys have been concentrating on free throws and all of our guys know that is a part of the game that we control and if we do that we have a shot to win every game and it proved that tonight.”

“I think we made some good defensive adjustments,” Wygant added. “We’ve been telling our kids all season if you give us a chance to win at the end we’re going to pull some of them out. I think our five losses this season are by a combined 15 points so we’re in it every time. I think our kids are comfortable playing in those situations. Handley is a very good, athletic team and they’re well coached.”

As is so often the case, free throws were the difference in the contest. Both teams had 18 field goals and the Judges had more 3-pointers than the Colonels (8-4), but Handley struggled from the foul line.

Though Handley made 3-of-5 in the fourth quarter, they were 8-for-17 (47 percent) for the game. In contrast, the Colonels were 13-of-18 (72 percent) from the charity stripe, including a cool 9-of-12 in the fourth quarter. Each team made only one field goal in the last period.

After trailing 31-10 midway through the second quarter and 38-25 at the break James Wood (8-5 overall, 1-2 Northwestern District, 1-3 conference) trimmed the deficit to six (47-41) after three quarters.

Still down by six early in the fourth quarter, the Colonels started inching closer again when Robert Jackson hit a pair of free throws to make it 49-45.

Handley senior Traiven Baxter made one of two free throws to push the lead to back to five (50-45), but then the Colonels made their next move.

With the crowd fully into the game and their confidence overwhelming, the Colonels rattled off the next six points.

Sophomore Chandler Brooks brought the crowd to their feet when he calmly buried a 3-pointer with 4:38 left to make it 50-48.

Following a Handley offensive foul, Jackson was again fouled and again he knocked down both tries to tie the game 50-50 with 3:27 on the clock.

Jackson then gave the Colonels their first lead of the game making 1-of-2 from the line for a 51-50 advantage with 1:49 to play.

Handley (7-7, 1-2 in both the district and conference) took its last lead of the contest when point guard Michael Brown made two free throws for a 52-51 advantage with 1:27 to play.

Wygant and Wood decided at that point that they would play for the last shot. For more then a minute the Colonels played catch and keep away just outside the 3-point arc and with 13 seconds left they called time to send up a play.

On the inbounds pass, Brooks drove straight to the lane and as the Judges converged on him he made a pretty drop pass to Hinebaugh who was fouled going up with eight seconds to play.

“Basically we just drew up a play and Chandler drove, the backside was open and he dished the ball off. I went up and got fouled,” Hinebaugh said of the final play. “At the line I just tried to keep my composure the best I could. We’ve been working a lot on free throws and it paid off. It’s worth it.”

“In the second half we just followed our game plan,” Hinebaugh added. “We got away from it in the first half. This win is great. We just came off two tough losses so to come back home and win this game is great.”

Things couldn’t have started any better for the Judges. They scored the first six points of the game and held a 15-4 lead with less than two minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Sophomore Kobe Tigney scored eight of his 15 points in the first to lead the Judges to an 18-10 advantage.

As hot as the Judges were in the first quarter, they seemed nearly unstoppable in the second.

Another sophomore, Gus Wise jumped started the Handley offense in the second by nailing a 3-pointer and igniting a 13-0 run to open the quarter.

Brown followed Wise’s trey with one of his own to push the lead to 24-10. Wise followed with an offensive stick back and then Brown went coast to coast with a layup to make it 28-10.

Handley took its biggest lead at 31-10 on a Tigney 3-pointer with five minutes remaining in the half.

James Wood finished the half on a 15-7 run to close the gap to 38-25 at the break.

As hot as the Judges were in the first half they were that cold in the second, scoring just 14 points in the final 16 minutes. Nine of those came on 3-point bombs by Wise in the third quarter, the only points Handley scored in the third.

“I don’t think we attacked (in the second half) like we were supposed to,” Handley coach Jason Toten said. “We lost some assignments defensively, we didn’t hit our free throws, I thought we attacked the basket we just didn’t hit our shots in the paint. You don’t do that it comes back to haunt you. I think for the game we shot 7-of-18 from the free throw line. You’re not going to win games doing that.”

Jackson led the way for the Colonels with a game high 20 points. Brooks added 13 and Vinnie Lew chipped eight.

Wise knocked down five 3-pointers and led the way for the Judges with 19 points. Tigney scored 15 and Brown added nine.