Wednesday,
January 8, 2014
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Brad Gaffney's baseline floater forced overtime and he hit a free throw in overtime to seal Manchester's first win of the season, a 57-53 victory on Tuesday in Lodi |
LODI – Even though the 2013-2014 season is less than a month old there are already teams desperate for victories, albeit for a variety of different reasons. After winning just one game all of last season and going winless in league play, Lodi was looking for its third win of this season and its second league win. The Rams were pitted against a stingy Manchester squad that was winless heading into the contest and almost in desperation mode as it chased a league win on the road on Tuesday night. Something had to give and someone has to step up as the teams needed overtime to decide a winner.
Brad Gaffney hit a baseline floater with five seconds left to force the extra session, then hit a free-throw with six seconds left in the overtime to ice the game as Manchester earned its first win of the season, a 57-53 triumph over Lodi at Lodi High School.
“We’re very happy with this result because of how much we’ve been struggling lately,” said Manchester head coach Rich Sponzilli. “In four games, I’ve started four different point guards just trying to find some kind of chemistry. I thought we played well in the first half and turned the ball all over the place in the second half, but we kept fighting hard and came out with the win.”
Both teams came out firing early in an entertaining first half. The lead went back-and-forth throughout until Gaffney scored consecutive buckets late in the second quarter to give Manchester a 39-34 halftime lead.
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Melvin Florian and Lodi fell to 2-2 on the season, a solid start after last year's one-win campaign. |
“They just played harder than we did in the first half; it’s as simple as that,” said Lodi head coach Rob Terhune. “We didn’t defend for most of the half and on the possessions that we did, we let them get second and third shots at the basket. We played much better in the second half defensively but we didn’t find a way to win tonight.”
Lodi's Manny Appiah used his quickness to cause problems all night for the Manchester guards. He stole two straight passes near midcourt and converted them both into breakaway layups to put the Rams in front heading into the fourth quarter, 45-43.
Lodi had a chance to close it out late but only hit one of four from the charity stripe in the final 50 seconds of regulation. That allowed the Falcons to get one last possession to tie the game or go-ahead. Gaffney missed a 3 from the corner, but Akiel Murray pulled down the offensive rebound and it got back to Gaffney in the opposite corner. With a second opportunity, he drove the baseline and hit a floater with five seconds left to tie the game at 51 and force overtime.
“I was looking to get the ball inside, but he gave me the baseline so I took it,” said Gaffney. “That gave us the momentum going into overtime. We haven’t been playing right and we haven’t been working together as much as should be. We moved the ball around much better and got better shots tonight than we did in our other games. For us to get a conference win as our first win is big. It gives us a lot of confidence that we are becoming a better team.”
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Shawn Pierson finished with with 11 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals for Manchester, which improved to 1-3. |
The Falcons held Lodi to just two points in the four-minute overtime period and after a missed 3-point attempt to tie the game, Gaffney sealed the win by hitting the front end of a one-and-one.
Gaffney led all scorers with 17 points, 13 of those coming in the first half for Manchester (1-3). Murray added a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds and Shawn Pierson finished with 11 points, five assists, and three steals. Keyshawn Fowler had 16 points, while Appiah and Joe Rodriguez added 15 apiece for Lodi (2-2). Three-point shooting was the Rams’ undoing as they went just 5 of 29 (17.2%) from beyond the arc.
With a long stretch of games against comparable competition ahead, the Falcons hope that this one win is the springboard for future success.
“This is the first time in so many years where I returned no one with any significant varsity experience,” added Sponzilli. “Our biggest guy is 6-foot and none of our guards are bigger than 5-foot-5, so size is a problem, but if you play with heart and you take good shots, good things happen. They happened tonight and hopefully we’ll get better and more good things will happen down the road.”
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