PANDORA-GILBOA’S Eli Phillips shoots over North Baltimore’s Levi Gazarek in Friday’s Blanchard Valley Conference game at P-G. (Photo by Scott Ferguson)
By MICHAEL BURWELL
Staff Writer
PANDORA — A 8-0 run in a 91-second span late in the fourth quarter of Pandora-Gilboa’s game against North Baltimore on Friday made all the difference for the Rockets.
P-G opened up the only double-digit lead of the game for either team with the run, and the Rockets held on to beat the Tigers 51-43 in a Blanchard Valley Conference boys basketball game at Pandora-Gilboa.
“We had an eight-point lead at halftime (24-16), and we told the kids they’re going to make a run, just wait for it,” P-G coach Joe Braidic said. “So when they came back and tied us up (24-24), our kids at least knew it was coming. They mentally felt all right about it, even though they gave up a lead.
“But then we also know that it usually happens in a game, the other team makes a run, you’re going to make a run back. So that was our run back.”
P-G improved to 11-1 overall and 5-0 in the BVC. The Rockets, the defending Putnam County League champs who are 4-0 in that league, and Van Buren (5-0) are the last two teams unbeaten in BVC play.
“We’ve got an X on our backs every night,” P-G senior Drew Johnson said. “We’ve got to bring it every night because we’re going to get everyone’s best shot.”
North Baltimore suffered its first league loss in dropping to 7-2 overall, 3-1 BVC.
Johnson, a 6-foot-6 forward who became P-G’s all-time leading scorer in a Jan. 5 win over Arlington, notched game-highs of 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Rockets. Junior point guard Jared Breece added 14 points.
P-G and North Baltimore traded scores five times to open the fourth quarter. P-G maintained a 3-5 point lead until Julian Hagemyer, who led the Tigers with 14 points, drained a 3-pointer to cut North Baltimore’s deficit to 39-37. His putback cut it to 41-39 P-G with 4:31 left.
That’s when P-G used its spurt to take control.
P-G senior Cole Schwab knocked down a free throw with 4:20 left, and after a North Baltimore missed shot, Breece raced for a transition bucket to extend the lead to five.
Schwab, a bench player for the Rockets, drove to the basket and found Riley Larcom for a corner 3-pointer with 3:21 left. Breece added a reverse layup with 2:49 left as the Rockets’ lead swelled to 49-39.
“We challeged our guys in a timeout, we have to get one stop,” North Baltimore coach Adam Burris said. “We have to get one stop to actually have a chance because forever, it was a two-possession game.
“We would make a bucket, make it a one-possession game, and then they would make a bucket to make it a two-possession game … we missed a couple bunnies and then it just snowballed from there.”
Larcom, a 6-2 junior foward and one of P-G’s primary defenders, came up big in the fourth quarter on offense by scoring all seven of his points. Johnson fired a pass from the 3-point line to Larcom for an easy bucket in the paint early in the quarter, and Larcom added another bucket off his own miss as well.
“We needed some buckets on offense and I figured I’m just going to go in the paint and do what I could do to help the team,” Larcom said, “and that three was big, gave us a big momentum shift. It all started from the defense, when I do good on defense, it kind of goes to my offense and that’s just what happened tonight.”
Chase Naugle scored four quick points to pull the Tigers to within 49-43 with 1:13 left, but those were the only points the Tigers scored in the final four and a half minutes.
Johnson’s deep 3-pointer at the buzzer gave P-G its eight-point halftime lead, but the momentum shifted to North Baltimore as the Tigers opened the frame on an 8-0 run. Levi Gazarek had four points during the run, while Hagemyer hit a 3-pointer.
Johnson, however, scored the next seven points to give P-G the lead.
The Rockets never trailed in the game.
“We had 24-24 and we had two layups down there that we missed, so it’s a back breaker,” Burris said. “I thought we had them on the ropes, and then if we would have made that, who knows what would have happened. But we just missed a lot of layups tonight.”
North Baltimore shot 39 percent (17 of 44), but was just 20 percent (3 of 15) from 3-point range. Adam Flores scored seven of his 11 points in the first half for the Tigers, while Gazarek totaled eight points and six rebounds.
Cooper McCullough added seven points and five boards for the Rockets, who shot 51 percent (22 of 43) from the floor.
NORTH BALTIMORE (7-2, 3-1 BVC)
Hagemyer 6-0–14, Flores 4-2–11, Gazarek 3-2–8, Naugle 2-0–4, Rader 1-1–3, Durfey 1-1–3, Cotterman 0-0–0. TOTALS: 17-44 6-9 — 43.
PANDORA-GILBOA (11-1, 5-0 BVC)
Johnson 8-2–20, Breece 7-0–14, Larcom 3-0–7, McCullough 3-1–7, Huffman 1-0–2, Schwab 0-1–1, Wauters 0-0–0, Lee 0-0–0, Murphy 0-0–0, Phillips 0-0–0. TOTALS: 22-43 4-10 — 51.
North Baltimore 4 12 12 15 — 43
Pandora-Gilboa 9 15 7 20 — 51
3-Point GOALS: North Baltimore 3-15 (Hagemyer 2, Flores 1); Pandora-Gilboa 3-13 (Johnson 2, Larcom 1).
rebounds: North Baltimore 26 (Gazarek & Rader 6); Pandora-Gilboa 29 (Johnson 10).
turnovers: North Baltimore 11, Pandora-Gilboa 12.
junior varsity: Pandora-Gilboa, 51-25.
Burwell, 419-427-8407
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