Team Detail
Maroon Defeats St. Albans in Overtime Thriller
On Tuesday evening the boys' varsity basketball team traveled to Washington, D.C., to face the St. Albans Bulldogs in an important IAC match-up.
This game was the third straight road contest for the Maroon, and after a few tough losses the team was looking to bounce back against a formidable opponent. St. Albans is well-coached, and they have a balanced inside/outside attack.
EHS struggled early in the game with turnovers and missed shots, but that did not affect the Maroon on the defensive end of the court. Great effort by Episcopal along with some timely trapping defense stifled the St. Albans offense. The first half ended with the Bulldogs on top by a score of 27-26. The halftime conversation between the players and coaches focused on an increased effort to take care of the ball, and execute on offense. Even though St. Albans increased their lead by one point after the third quarter, the Episcopal players seemed to be energized and it looked as though their best basketball was still ahead of them in this game.
EHS quickly erased the deficit, and the team was able to take a small lead for most of the fourth quarter. With seven seconds left in the period, EHS was up three points, and at the free throw line. The shot was missed, and after a St. Albans player gained possession with 5.7 seconds, he raced up the floor with the ball, and Albans called timeout. At that point, there was 2.6 seconds remaining on the clock. Once the timeout was over and the Maroon took the floor, everyone was surprised to see that the game clock had been reset to 5.6 seconds. The officials explained their interpretation of why the clock should be changed, and this altered the strategy for the Maroon. Sure enough, a St. Albans player received the in-bounds pass, pump-faked his defender, took a dribble, and made a three-point shot with 1.2 seconds remaining. EHS called timeout and set up a full-court play, but the second pass was a bit off the mark, and the game was headed in to overtime.
In overtime EHS took control of the game once again, and the team found themselves up four points, and back at the free throw line with just under seven seconds to play. Both teams were out of timeouts, and in high school basketball the game clock does not stop on made baskets. Therefore, missed or made, the Maroon were instructed to not foul, and not even in-bound the ball, and the clock would expire. EHS missed the free throw, a player from St. Albans gathered the rebound, dribbled down the court, and did score a three-point basket; and then the official blew his whistle to stop the clock with .2 seconds remaining. There was confusion regarding whether or not a player from the Bulldog bench had called a timeout, which they did not have. The officials decided it was an inadvertent whistle, and to make matters worse they put .6 seconds back on the clock and forced EHS to in-bound the ball once more. Fortunately for the Maroon, the ball was thrown in, and after a tough by an EHS player the clock expired. EHS won a wild game by a final score of 64-63.
With the win Episcopal improves to 13-5, 3-2 in the IAC.
