Boys Basketball: Knights comeback effort falls short against Oakdale

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

                       

The Middletown High School Knights Boys Basketball team was in a position to give up. Their game in the sectional semifinal round of the 2015 Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (M.P.S.S.A.A.) 2A Boys Basketball State Tournament had headed south in a hurry with the Knights having seen a 4 point deficit at the end of the 3^rd quarter get stretched to a 11-point lead with 3:27 left in the game.

The Knights weren’t going to give up though. Not after all they had been through this season. The emotional pain, the physical pain, the hurt that came with this season wasn’t enough to stop the Knights then and it surely wouldn’t be enough to stop the Knights now.

So, the Knights battled back, inch-by-inch, point-by-point until it was a game again. Unfortunately, the Knights couldn’t finish the deal as they lost to the Bears 64-61.

The Knights and the Bears would match each other throughout the game in a contest that had the intensity of what felt like a state championship game. With both student sections going crazy and making noise, Bears Gymnasium was as an intimidating environment as you will find in the state.

The game took on a physical context early with both teams showing no reluctance to throw their weight around and play a hard-nosed type of game.

Oakdale would lead 12-8 at the end of the 1^st quarter and would use the Knights mistakes in the 2^nd quarter to make their lead at the half 21-15. It would be the first of many times that the Middletown could have rolled over and given up but the Knights would dig in at the start of the 3^rd quarter.

A couple of early 3-pointers by Middletown senior Clay Smith who scored 23 for the Knights would put the Knights within 4 points of the Bears. Oakdale and Middletown would go on a run of 5 possessions where the two teams would match each other in scoring on those possessions leaving the score 38-34 Oakdale at the end of the third quarter.

That is when things would start to fall apart for Middletown. Knights junior Matt Considine would drain a 3 for Middletown with just under 6 minutes remaining in the game. From there the Bears would go on an 8-0 run to extend the lead to 56-42 with just above 3 minutes left in the game, putting the Knights almost assuredly towards an early exit home.

Middletown would dig in from there though. Middletown senior Ian Roy would hit a 3-pointer to cut the Bears lead back to 11 points. After a bucket by Middletown senior Cedric Ayenu, Smith and Roy would make back-to-back three pointers for the Knights.

This would put the Knights within 3 point with about 2 minutes left in the game. The two teams would go back-and-forth scoring until the Knights found themselves down by 4 points with 54.6 seconds left in the game.

At that point it seemed like the Knights comeback run was over but Middletown would continue to chip away even under unlikely circumstances.

Oakdale would take a 61-56 lead with 50 seconds left in the game but would miss two three throws to extend the lead to 7. Instead Smith would run down the court and make a lay-up dropping the lead to 3 points. After 2 more made free-throws by Oakdale, the Knights would come down the floor again and get fouled putting him at the line.

Smith would make two for the Knights, shrinking the Bears lead to 3 with 15 seconds left. Middletown would foul on the inbounds, but this time the Bears would come up shooting blanks missing both free throws. Down 3, Middletown would go down the court leading to a foul on Considine, putting him on the line to shoot two free throws. Considine would make 1-2 dropping the Bears lead to 2.

Oakdale would then be fouled and would go to the line and hit 1 of 2 putting the lead back to 3 points and forcing the Knights to call time-out up 3 with 2.3 seconds left.

That is where controversy would come into play. On the inbounds Smith would find Middletown senior Will McClain past the center stripe leading to the Knights calling another time-out.

Oakdale would ask for a technical foul as Middletown had called 2 :60 time-outs back-to-back, which would lead to a technical foul. The referees would not grant this though sending Oakdale coach Terry Connolly into a fit of his own, with his chair being pounded and abused, a fit that probably should have seen Connolly receive a technical of his own.

Middletown would inbounds the ball to Roy with 1.6 seconds left, but the shot from Roy, who appeared to have been chopped hard from behind would fall well short, ending the Knights’ night, the comeback effort, and their season.