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Amherst loses battle with McKinley in A-1 semifinals
McKinley went on to beat Williamsville South, 70-55, on Saturday at Buffalo State for the A-1 title. Amherst, who trailed by as many as 12 at the beginning of the third quarter, tied the game at 53-53 with 23.1 seconds left in regulation after senior point guard Andre Hakeem knocked down 1 of 2 free throws. Cordell Freeman (22 points, eight rebounds) blocked a jumper from McKinley's Mark Overall (14 points) at the regulation buzzer. With the game tied at 55-55 in overtime, McKinley's Mansa Habeeb gave the Macks the lead for good, stealing the ball from Amherst's Chris France (12 points, six rebounds) and laying it in. Habeeb (19 points) added 2 of 4 free throws, his last the game-clincher with less than 10 seconds left. Amherst had the lead once in overtime. An offensive putback from Viron Hale off a missed France layup gave Amherst a 55-54 advantage but the Tigers threw the ball out of bounds twice and had it stolen once down the stretch. Amherst finished overall with 29 turnovers. They shot 19 of 59 from the floor. The closest Amherst could cut the deficit in overtime was 61-60. "We never gave up," said Amherst coach Mike Chatelle. "We were down by 12 and could have packed in it. We regrouped from a timeout and gave a great effort. It just didn't work out. We missed a couple of opportunities at the end and they didn't. I'm not disappointed with the effort, just the result." Momentum switched several times. McKinley scored the first six points of the game and led, 21-14, after the first quarter, and 27-22, at halftime. After McKinley built a 34-22 advantage, Amherst turned up the defensive intensity to outscore the Macks, 14-2, to tie the game at 36-36, by the end of the quarter. France started the Tigers' rally with a steal and end-to-end layup. McKinley also went ice cold from the floor, missing seven straight shots to end the quarter. A steal and right-handed dunk from Freeman on Amherst's second shot of the fourth quarter gave the Tigers its first lead of the game, 38-36, and a three-pointer from France followed by a pass to Freeman inside lifted Amherst to a 43-36 advantage with 5:33 remaining. "For about 6½ minutes between the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter, we could not score," said McKinley coach James Daye. "That gave them a lot of momentum. They did a lot of things that forced us to not play smart. They extended the zone and our guards did not want to penetrate. Our one guard who can penetrate (William Robinson) has a bad knee." The Tigers were ahead, 51-44, with just under three minutes to play, but a running layup from Overall, a floater from Robinson, and a Habeeb steal to Overall cut the Macks' deficit to 51-50 with 1:52 remaining. The last minute of regulation, like the rest of the game, was end to end action. With the game tied at 52-52, Overall seemed to put McKinley ahead with a layup with 34.1 seconds remaining but the shot was called off because of a shot clock violation. Freeman followed with a long full-court inbounds pass that France tried to keep in play but ended with France fouling the Macks' Kevin Chillis (11 points) who left the court with an apparent knee injury. Chillis would return. Tamere Shannon (14 points) hit 1 of 2 free throws in place of Chillis with 28 seconds left. Hakeem was fouled by Shannon and hit 1 of 2 free throws five seconds later. Hakeem and Matt Krajna each finished with eight points. Amherst finishes 16-6, its best season since winning the A-1 title two years ago. Freeman, France, Hakeem, Krajna, Will Gowen, Troy Martin (seven points against McKinley) and Pete Caffarelli are seniors. "I thought this season was a pleasant surprise," said Chatelle. "I don't know if anybody expected us to be here, especially in the division that we're in. Once the season started, we started to gel and play better." e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com |
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