Finishing strong: Late rally carries Gators to 57-55 victory
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
The Gators’ Trevell Clayton (24) shoots over Eden Christian Academy’s Ryan Merrick (3) and David Ryan (33) in the first quarter of Wednesday’s WPIAL Class A quarterfinal playoff game at Geibel Catholic.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
The Gators’ Trevon White (12) is fouled by Eden Christian Academy’s Daniel Batch (14) as he makes the tying field goal with 45 seconds remaining in day’s Wednesday’s WPIAL Class A quarterfinal playoff game at Geibel Catholic.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
The Gators’ Trevell Clayton (24) drives the baseline against Eden Christian Academy’s Ryan Merrick in the second quarter of Wednesday’s WPIAL Class A quarterfinal playoff game at Geibel Catholic.
The Gators' Jaydis Kennedy (3) dribbles in front of Eden Christian Academy's Sean Aiken during the first quarter of Wednesday's WPIAL Class A quarterfinal playoff game at Geibel Catholic.
The Gators' Trevell Clayton goes up strong for a basket in the second quarter of Wednesday's WPIAL Class A quarterfinal playoff game against Eden Christian Academy at Geibel Catholic.
CONNELLSVILLE TWP. — The Geibel Catholic boys made the right plays at the right time down the stretch Wednesday night for 57-55 come-from-behind WPIAL Class A quarterfinal victory over visiting Eden Christian Academy.
“That shows the maturity of our team this year,” Geibel Catholic coach Don Porter said of the win. “We had depth and maturity.”
The fourth-seeded Gators (18-5) advance to the semifinals Saturday against Section 2-A foe Bishop Canevin. The top-seeded Crusaders cruised past Rochester, 66-34.
Bishop Canevin (18-4) swept the section series from the Gators, 91-50 and 83-61.
Both teams secure two of the five berths into the PIAA playoffs.
Eden Christian recovered from a real slow start, not scoring until 4:43 had elapsed in the first quarter, by taking a 47-42 lead with just over six minutes left in the game.
The Gators chipped away at the deficit until the home team regained the lead at 54-53 on Trevon White’s 3-point play with 42.8 seconds remaining. White finished with 10 points.
Although Geibel made only 5-of-13 free throws in the fourth quarter, Trevell Clayton managed to gather a couple of those misses for key putbacks in the waning minutes of the game.
The game had the look of a rout early on with Eden Christian Academy unable to make any shots. The underneath game was nonexistent with Geibel defenders routinely blocking shots in the lane.
“I think they had road jitters,” said Porter.
The Warriors trailed 11-0 before they hit a foul shot at 3:17 of the opening quarter. Eden Christian Academy managed to play the remaining three minutes even with the Gators taking a 16-5 lead into the second quarter.
The shots that weren’t falling in the first quarter starting to count in the second quarter as the Warriors mounted a comeback.
Geibel led 21-11 with 5½ minutes remaining in the first half, but the Gators went cold, allowing the Warriors to rally for a 26-25 advantage with 1:19 left in the quarter.
Clayton scored two of his team-high 17 points to return the lead to Geibel, 27-26, with 55 seconds left in the half.
Eden Christian Academy then scored the final field goal of the half for a 28-27 lead.
“Our two bigs (Trevell Clayton and Tre White), we fed them. We had a good mismatch on the block. We had to make some halftime adjustments,” said Porter.
Jaydis Kennedy dealt with leg cramps throughout the game, but Brayden Curry filled in admirably. Curry forced a key turnover in the fourth quarter when the Gators were mounting their comeback.
“Brayden Curry is a hard worker. He made big plays in not a lot of minutes,” praised Porter.
The Warriors retained a one-point lead after the teams both scored 13 points in the third quarter.
Eden Christian Academy had a mini-run to extend the lead to 47-42 two minutes into the final quarter behind the play of David Ryan and Daniel Batch.
Ryan led the Warriors (13-9) with 16 points. Batch finished with 11. Malachi Manges and Ryan Merrick both scored 12 points.
The Gators had a balanced scoring attack with Kennedy (13) and Jeff Johnson (12) also scoring in double figures.
Porter said his attention would quickly turn to Saturday’s game against the Crusaders.
“I’ll enjoy a pizza tonight and get back at it at 7 a.m. (Thursday) to be ready for that challenge,” said Porter. “Our passing game has to be worked on. We take bad angles (on entry passes).”