Thursday, January 17, 2013

Worth County Boys Fall Short Again

Worth County's boys fell short yet again, battling King City the whole game but falling five points short, 58-53. Pitted against John Spiking, at 6'5", one of the most mobile post players in the game, Worth County elected to play a sagging 2-3 zone and surround him with two players at every opportunity. They succeeded in slowing him down, holding him to 7, only to allow Drew Potter to go off on them from downtown as he had 26. Offensively, Worth County had to attack him and they did, with Truman Moore going up against him all night and getting a career high 13 points as the Tigers got closer to the goal of getting all five players as a threat to score.

Truman Moore got a putback and Bryce Ross (21 points) got a pair of drives and a steal, but Worth County fell into a 13-8 hole. Worth County was giving up too many easy fast break looks on the other end as King City stretched their lead to 23-12 at one point. But then King City tried a trapping zone on Worth County and it backfired as Grant Parman went backdoor against them and hit two free throws; Brevyn Ross (12 points) added a tipin that made it 23-16 and the deficit stayed between 7 and 12 for the next stretch. Worth County trailed 30-22 at the half.

Worth County continued to surround Spiking, but King City took full advantage in the third quarter, growing the lead to as much as 49-35 at one point as they rained 3-pointer after 3-pointer on Worth County. But finally, Worth County responded with their press as they were able to force some turnovers and get the deficit under double digits again. Truman Moore scored off an inside shot, Brevyn scored off a Bryce Ross steal, and Brevyn hit a runner from the right wing to make it 49-41 after three.

Little-used Lane Craven came off the bench to guard Spiking and he got his first varsity point as he got behind the King City defense, drew a foul, and got a free throw to cut the gap to 49-44. But then King City answered with Potter's sixth 3-pointer of the night, prompting Worth County to switch to a triangle and two on Spiking and Potter. The adjustment worked as Worth County was able to chip away while King City was struggling to solve the new look. Cole Parman hit Truman on a backdoor play, Andrew Mullock hit Brevyn Ross on the baseline, and Bryce Ross hit a pair of free throws to make it 52-50 with 2:30 left. Worth County had three good looks to tie or take the lead in the next 1:30, but Truman Moore missed a good look inside, Brevyn Ross missed a runner over Spiking, and Cole Parman missed a good look from the right wing that would have been a 3-pointer. Finally, Connor Eiberger hit a free throw with 46.6 seconds. Bryce Ross' tying 3-pointer was way off and Eiberger hit another free throw to make it 54-50. Andrew Mullock hit Bryce Ross on a kickout to make it 54-52, but King City hit two more free throws to make it 56-52 with 9.1 seconds left. Truman Moore drew a foul with 2.3 seconds left and hit one; he intentionally missed the second in the hopes that Worth County would get the board and tip it out for a tying 3-pointer. But King City got the defensive board and hit two more free throws.

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