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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2019)
JANUARY 18, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A11 McNary loses heartbreaker at the buzzer By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes The McNary boys hoops squad led for the most of the contest, but a squandered op- portunity in the fi nal moments left the Celtics heartbroken in the end. With the score tied at 56 with 11 seconds on the clock, McNary had possession of the ball with a chance to score the go-ahead bucket. But West Salem’s Justin Scoggin came away with a clutch steal, and then went coast-to-coast to fi nish a tough layup on the other end as time expired to give the Titans the 58-56 vic- tory over McNary on Friday, Jan. 11 “It stings. Losing tough games hurt. But I couldn’t be prouder of how hard our guys played,” McNary head coach Ryan Kirch said. “We’re walk- ing out of here with our heads held high.” “Give credit to West Salem. They battled for 32 minutes. They are very well coached, and their players made plays when they needed to.” Boston Smith led McNary with a game-high of 19 points and Griffi n Oliveira chipped in with 12 points. Nate Meithof added 11 points on the evening and Al- fredo Villareal was also in dou- ble-digits with 10 points. West Salem grabbed the 5-4 lead in the early-going, but fi ve quick points from Ol- iveira gave the Celtics the lead back midway through the pe- riod. Along with being a key scorer for the Celtics, Olivei- ra was also given the task of face-guarding Scoggin for the entire fi rst quarter. “We knew that (Scoggin) was a really good player and a really good scorer for them, so it was our game-plan to face- guard him coming in,” Olivei- ra said. “On the offensive end, I was just trying to take what they were giving to me. I wasn’t trying to force anything up.” Both Meithof and Junior Walling hit a pair of foul shots late in the quarter to complete a 9-1 run, giving the Celtics a 13-6 advantage. Despite putting the clamps on the Titans offense with ATTN: Investment Property Owners Right now is a crucial time to take advantage of a 1031-Exchange to optimize capital gains tax reduction, increase your base, and optimize your cash fl ow. KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings McNary post Boston Smith (#30) tries to fi ght through a double team after receiving the ball in the paint. their hard man-to-man de- fense, the Celtics started to get into foul trouble towards the end of the fi rst quarter. So Kirch elected to move to a 2-3 zone at the beginning of the second period after Meithof and Smith each picked up their second foul. “We were trying to extend the lead but needed to stay out of foul trouble,” Kirch said. “So I put Boston and Nate back in because I wanted to protect them for the rest of the second quarter so we could try and go to the third quarter with the lead.” Adjustments with defense and personnel didn’t seem to effect McNary offensively in the second period. A put-back hoop from Smith, followed by a baseline fadeaway jump- er from Oliveira and a three- point play by Meithof allowed Act before investment tax laws change Krisstine Jacobsen Principal Broker / Owner Call me at 503.504.7330 for a FREE market analysis of your investment property McNary to stay on top 26-19. The Celtics extended their lead to double-digits after Smith muscled in a pair of buckets deep in the paint late in the second quarter, giving the senior post 14 points for the half. “It’s always a point-of-em- phasis to get the ball inside,” Smith said. “I thought we did a good job with our spacing.” McNary kept the momen- tum going to start the third quarter as a runner from Vil- lareal and a 3-pointer from the corner by Meithof helped McNary stay on top by dou- ble-fi gures midway through the third period. But West Salem came roar- ing back to tie the game with a 10-0 run thanks to four sec- ond-chance buckets. The Titans even grabbed their fi rst lead since the open- ing minutes of the fi rst quar- ter moments later, but Villareal ended the third period with a fl oater to tie the game at 46. Villareal then started the fi - nal quarter with a three-point play, which was followed by a jump-hook from Smith to put McNary on top 51-46. West Salem, however, came back to re-take the lead with a 6-0 run. The back-and-forth play continued for the remainder of the period as the Celtics were able to capture the lead once again after Smith hit a tough jumper to make it 55-54. After a defensive stop by McNary, Smith was then fouled on the other end and sent to the foul line with 1:27 to go. Smith, however, was only able to hit one of his two shots, which allowed West Sa- lem guard Kieran Pruett to tie the game on the Titans next possession with 1:15 remain- ing. Kirch wanted his team to hold for the fi nal shot, so after stalling for just over a minute, the McNary head coach called timeout and drew up a play for Meithof. “They were really pack- ing the paint on Boston and I was concerned with getting him the ball in the right spot,” Kirch said. “We had turned it over three times in the last four minutes trying to enter it into (Smith). We tried to put (Meithof) in a pick and roll situation to draw his defend- er out and open up a driving lane.” Meithof caught the ball on the inbounds and started to make his move. But after trying to use a screen from Smith, Meithof spun into a double-team and had the ball stolen by Scoggin, who then took off in the other direction with the intent of scoring the winning bucket. Oliveira was the last line of defense for the Celtics, but Scoggin just got around him to put in a nifty scoop shot off the glass as the buzzer sound- ed, sending West Salem off to victory. Kirch took full responsibil- ity of what took place during the fi nal play. “I need to put my players in the best position to make plays, and I didn’t do that in the fi nal moments,” Kirch said. “That’s on me. I’m so proud of how hard our kids played, competed for each other, and represented our program.” Despite the loss, this team is confi dent in their ability to pick themselves up off the mat. “It’s just one loss. It will sting tonight, but we got each other’s backs and we’re not worried about it.” Smith added: “We’re deal- ing with this loss in a positive way.” McNary travels to McKay tonight for a 5:45 p.m. game. KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings Celtics point guard Alfredo Villareal looks to set up the offense.