Red Knights perform under pressure
Toronto gets needed win at Oak Glen, but seems to fall just short of OVAC cut
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NEW MANCHESTER -- Entering the cutoff day sitting one spot outside of the top four, Toronto coach Sean Tucker simply wanted his team to control what it could control Tuesday night.
His Red Knights did just that, pulling away from Oak Glen early and not looking back for a dominant 60-31 win at the Bears Den to at least give themselves a chance of moving into a conference tournament spot.
"We've crunched numbers all week, we're hoping to put our guys in a position to play for a championship and in order to do that, you've got to get in the top four," Tucker said. "We knew that we had to take care of business today and then let the cards fall where they may, but the big thing was we had to take care of business. There were a lot of implications on the line for us and we took care of business."
The win, though, did not appear to be enough as Toronto stayed in fifth place when the Class 2A standings updated late Tuesday night, narrowly below the cut off by a little more than three tenths of a percentage point.
Playing shorthanded did not slow the Knights (11-7) either as nine different players found the scoresheet.
"We were down two starters and we have a group of guys that firmly believe in a family concept," Tucker said. "That's what's great about this group, they're a great group to be around and you want to be around them. They want to be a part of this. When one guy is down, someone else steps up. They do an excellent job of staying together and knowing what the job is.
"I could not be prouder of this group, and especially the younger guys stepping up in their roles, roles they normally aren't in."
After being knotted at 5-5 in the opening quarter, Toronto went on a 16-2 run that spanned into the second quarter and made it a 14-point lead.
The Golden Bears' (1-16) Preston Cole hit a pair of 3-pointers and Jared Hissam hit a third to cut the lead down to seven, but the Knights inched back ahead and Kam Baker drained a triple of his own at the buzzer to make it a 29-18 Toronto lead at halftime.
Then, after the break, the Knights scored 16 of the first 18 points to make it a 19-2 run, push the lead to 25 and, for all intents and purposes, put the game away.
"We talked at halftime and said forget about the first half, treat it like we're starting 0-0 and we have to win every quarter," Tucker said. "The third quarter has been a bit of a hump for us to get over. We came out hot, got in a little lull and let them have a bit of a run, but then started defending a lot better. We were rotating freshmen in during the third quarter, we played three freshmen in the third quarter which is huge for this group."
Toronto pulled away by as many as 31 in the fourth quarter before winning by 29.
"We just did not come to play and it showed," Oak Glen head coach Jerry Everly said. "It's my responsibility to make sure we are ready to go and we weren't. That falls on me. I'm very disappointed in the way we played, I'm disappointed in the effort. The only thing we can try to do is regroup and come back (Friday) and play hard.
"We beat Toronto twice last year, so we know we can play with them. But we just didn't play well. We couldn't get a shot to fall early, and when you have a team that doesn't have a lot confidence, not hitting shots early makes it snowball and all of sudden you're down 10, 15, 20."
Nolan Dickinson tallied 15 points to lead the Red Knights, while Baker netted 14 and Blake Close tallied 11 to put three in double figures.
Preston Cole and Jared Hissam netted eight each to lead the Bears.
JV ACTION
The Red Knights also won the junior varsity game, 50-32. Leading the way for Toronto was Austin Buchanan with 16 points.
UP NEXT
Toronto: Returns home to host Indian Creek on Friday night.
Oak Glen: Travels to Beaver Local on Friday night.
Toronto 60, Oak Glen 31
Toronto 11-18-20-11 – 60
Oak Glen 7-11-9-4 – 31
TORONTO (11-7): N. Dickinson 6 2-4 15; Karaffa 3 0-0 7; Baker 5 3-4 14; Jenkins 0 0-0 0; Buchanan 1 2-2 4; Fair 0 0-0 0; Ensell 1 0-0 2; Close 4 3-4 11; Henry 0 0-0 0; Grimes 1 0-0 3; R. Dickinson 1 1-2 3; Thomas 0 1-2 1. TOTALS: 22, 12-18; 60.
OAK GLEN (1-16): Chaney 2 0-0 4; Weekley 0 0-0 0; Cole 3 0-2 8; Ramgeet 1 2-2 4; Hissam 3 0-0 8; Howard 0 0-0 0; Geisse 1 2-2 4; Ferguson 0 0-2 0; Evans 0 0-0 0; Cowart 1 0-0 3; Dennis 0 0-2 0. TOTALS: 11, 4-10; 31.
3-POINT GOALS: Toronto 4 (N. Dickinson, Karaffa, Baker, Grimes); Oak Glen 5 (Cole 2, Hissam 2, Cowart).