Boys Basketball: Paraclete stunned by Viewpoint on senior night
Feb. 5, 2015
ALONSO TACANGA/Valley Press
LANCASTER – At a point early in the fourth quarter of Paraclete's senior night game against Viewpoint on Thursday, head coach Tim Atkerson had to turn away as one of his players got ready to shoot a free throw.
"It's like a scary movie, I can't watch," he mumbled.
For Atkerson's team, that sequence counted as part of the happy moments that preceded a stunning Viewpoint run in a 51-48 Gold Coast League loss that indeed was straight out of a horror movie.
Following the free throw, a make, the Spirits led 39-31. They would extend that advantage to 46-35 with 5:15 to go after a 3-pointer from senior Blake Jordan.
In a league where getting wins has turned almost as difficult as learning Chinese through correspondence for Paraclete, it looked like the rewarding ending the Spirits believed they deserved.
But Viewpoint (16-6, 3-4 GCL) outscored the Spirits 16-3 over the last five minutes of the game. That included a tiebreaking 3-pointer at the buzzer from Viewpoint's Christian Juzang, who was immediately mugged by teammates as the Spirits (14-9, 1-6) walked off the court shaking their heads.
"Any time you lose, it's tough," Atkerson said. "But I thought we played well enough to win. It came down to who had the ball last."
As Atkerson demonstrated, it also came down to free throws.
The Spirits missed 13 of 22 freebies, including 3 of 4 in the last 46.5 seconds.
With Paraclete leading 47-46, senior Brennen Bryant, who scored a team-high 18 points, missed two. Juzang then made a jumper to give Viewpoint a one-point lead with 30 seconds to go.
Paraclete junior Craig Massey was then fouled and made only the second free throw to tie the game with 13.5 seconds to go, setting up the heroics for Juzang, whose team didn't call a timeout.
Juzang scored 13 of his 15 total points in the fourth quarter.
"We should have won the game," said Jordan, who scored all of his 14 points after halftime.
It certainly looked as if they would.
Jordan hit a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to give the Spirits a 38-31 lead. He then had 7 of Paraclete's first eight points in the fourth, giving his team an 11-point lead it just couldn't hold on to.
It was a deflating end following an outstanding effort from Paraclete, which held Viewpoint to three points in the first quarter.
"I just know how hard our kids work, it's really all about them," Atkerson said. "You want something good to happen to your guys. But you got to learn from it. We have to own it. We got to hit shots."
Viewpoint's Miye Oni scored a game-high 22 points. All of them came after the first quarter.
Paraclete, which bid adieu to seniors Bryant, Blake, Patrick Kilcoyne and Steven George in a pregame ceremony, will play at Brentwood on Saturday in the Gold Coast seeding games, an end-of-the-season competition among all eight GCL teams.
Despite the heartbreaking loss, Bryant found a moment to appreciate what could have been his last home game.
"It's fun to play in an atmosphere like this, with the crowd getting behind us," he said. "It's good memories, even though we lost. It's something that I'll always remember. It's a positive."
ALONSO TACANGA/Valley Press
LANCASTER – At a point early in the fourth quarter of Paraclete's senior night game against Viewpoint on Thursday, head coach Tim Atkerson had to turn away as one of his players got ready to shoot a free throw.
"It's like a scary movie, I can't watch," he mumbled.
For Atkerson's team, that sequence counted as part of the happy moments that preceded a stunning Viewpoint run in a 51-48 Gold Coast League loss that indeed was straight out of a horror movie.
Following the free throw, a make, the Spirits led 39-31. They would extend that advantage to 46-35 with 5:15 to go after a 3-pointer from senior Blake Jordan.
In a league where getting wins has turned almost as difficult as learning Chinese through correspondence for Paraclete, it looked like the rewarding ending the Spirits believed they deserved.
But Viewpoint (16-6, 3-4 GCL) outscored the Spirits 16-3 over the last five minutes of the game. That included a tiebreaking 3-pointer at the buzzer from Viewpoint's Christian Juzang, who was immediately mugged by teammates as the Spirits (14-9, 1-6) walked off the court shaking their heads.
"Any time you lose, it's tough," Atkerson said. "But I thought we played well enough to win. It came down to who had the ball last."
As Atkerson demonstrated, it also came down to free throws.
The Spirits missed 13 of 22 freebies, including 3 of 4 in the last 46.5 seconds.
With Paraclete leading 47-46, senior Brennen Bryant, who scored a team-high 18 points, missed two. Juzang then made a jumper to give Viewpoint a one-point lead with 30 seconds to go.
Paraclete junior Craig Massey was then fouled and made only the second free throw to tie the game with 13.5 seconds to go, setting up the heroics for Juzang, whose team didn't call a timeout.
Juzang scored 13 of his 15 total points in the fourth quarter.
"We should have won the game," said Jordan, who scored all of his 14 points after halftime.
It certainly looked as if they would.
Jordan hit a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to give the Spirits a 38-31 lead. He then had 7 of Paraclete's first eight points in the fourth, giving his team an 11-point lead it just couldn't hold on to.
It was a deflating end following an outstanding effort from Paraclete, which held Viewpoint to three points in the first quarter.
"I just know how hard our kids work, it's really all about them," Atkerson said. "You want something good to happen to your guys. But you got to learn from it. We have to own it. We got to hit shots."
Viewpoint's Miye Oni scored a game-high 22 points. All of them came after the first quarter.
Paraclete, which bid adieu to seniors Bryant, Blake, Patrick Kilcoyne and Steven George in a pregame ceremony, will play at Brentwood on Saturday in the Gold Coast seeding games, an end-of-the-season competition among all eight GCL teams.
Despite the heartbreaking loss, Bryant found a moment to appreciate what could have been his last home game.
"It's fun to play in an atmosphere like this, with the crowd getting behind us," he said. "It's good memories, even though we lost. It's something that I'll always remember. It's a positive."