Sophomore guard Tyler Starr buried a three-pointer, his fifth and the Buckeye Trail Warriors’ 10th of the night, with just 11 ticks left to cap a comeback, from as many as 17 down, to propel the visiting Warriors to a come-from-behind 61-60 win over the Barnesville Shamrocks Tuesday.
On the ensuing trip down the floor, the ’Rocks turned the ball over, their 12th miscue of the final eight minutes, and the Warriors got the ball in with three seconds remaining and ran out the clock to escape with the win. The final lead was the first for Buckeye Trail since a tie at eight with 3:14 remaining in the opening quarter.
Barnesville (10-8) built the lead to as many as 17 with 1:46 left in the first half and took a 16-point margin (37-21) to the locker room at the halftime break.
“We were out of sync on what we wanted to do offensively,” Buckeye Trail coach Rod Gray said, “and that got us out of what we should have been doing defensively. When we needed to, with the game on the line, we kept battling. We told them we had to attack more on the dribble and that opened up the perimeter. In the middle of third quarter we started to extend our defense and put more pressure on the point guard. It didn’t necessarily cause turnovers, but it caused them to speed up and our guys found an extra gear and some extra gas in the tank the fourth quarter.”
The Warriors (12-5) were without the services of junior guard Zach Roe due to an ankle injury suffered in the last outing and the Shamrocks were missing senior guard Zack Dornon due to school disciplinary issues. Buckeye Trail dialed long distance a lot putting up 31 attempts from beyond the arc converting on the 10, including the big one at the end to provide the win.
The Shamrocks were still in control of an 11-point lead (60-49) with 4:51 left, but didn’t score again and provided the Warriors a number of opportunities for the comeback sending them to the line seven times and committing numerous unforced turnovers.
“We made a lot of bad decisions in general,” Barnesville coach Chris Pack admitted. “We had the game in hand and gave it away. It hurt not having Zack (Dornon) late in the game since Dylan MacMillan got hit in the eye at the start of the fourth quarter and lost a contact. Preston (Dornon) extended our lead, but got tired and needed a break. We couldn’t get him a break as he was the last man standing as far as guards were concerned.
“We knew not to do what we were doing, but did it anyway,” he added. “It was our mind set and we played in too high of a gear in the second half and we just panicked. We weathered a couple of their runs, but we looked like the team that was down by 10 points. We wanted them to eat the clock up working to get the long three’s, but we gave them opportunities by sending them to the foul line.”
Tyler Starr opened the game with a trey, but Barnesville reeled off seven straight to grab a 7-3 lead. A three-pointer by CJ Beaver and a pair of free throws by Dakota Patterson gave the visitors a one-point lead. Tyler Fitzpatrick knotted the score at eight and put the Shamrocks in front with a pair of charity tosses. The ’Rocks increased the lead to four (12-8), but a 6-2 run by Trail tied the score again at 14. A Fitzpatrick bucket with just 23 seconds left in the round gave the hosts a 16-14 edge at the close and they maintained the advantage until the final 11 seconds.
Barnesville dominated the second round with spurts of 11 and seven to build the 17-point advantage with 1:46 left in the half.
“We were destroying them in the second quarter without one of our guards,” Pack pointed out. “If we play like we played the second quarter, we can compete with anybody.”
The Shamrocks maintained a double digit lead the third quarter before another three by Tyler Starr cut the deficit to seven with 2:17 left in the stanza. The Warriors kept battling and a trey by Beaver with just three seconds showing in the frame cut the difference to five and gave the visitors hope.
Behind back-to-back threes by Preston Dornon early in the final frame extended the Barnesville lead back to 11 but the remaining 4:51 belonged to the Warriors.
“It was a great team effort,” Gray summed up.
Both teams put up 53 field goal attempts with the Warriors converting 20 for 37.7 percent, while Barnesville connected on 25 for 47.1 percent. Buckeye Trail added 11-of-15 from the foul line, while the Shamrocks sank 6-of-8 bonus attempts.
Beaver and Tyler Starr poured in 17 points each to pace four Warriors in double figures. Patterson added 11 points and Lane Starr was close behind with 10 markers. The visitors turned in 11 assists with Lane Starr dishing five and Beaver three. BT also collected nine steals with Lane Starr grabbing five and Tyler Starr a pair.
Fitzpatrick led the Shamrock offense with 21 points with Preston Dornon adding 19 and Brandon Burkhart 11 before fouling out with 1:03 left. MacMillan chipped in with seven points. The hosts had 12 assists led by MacMillan with six and Fitzpatrick with four. MacMillan also picked off three of the five steals with Dornon adding the other two. Burkhart smacked a pair of blocked shots and Fitzpatrick added another.
Barnesville dominated the boards with a 40-27 rebounding advantage. Fitzpatrick completed the double-double with 13 rebounds and Ian Wells added six. Kyle Larrick paced the Warriors on the glass with eight caroms and Beaver added six.
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