Falcons’ comeback comes up short in final seconds
Darlington’s Sa’von Williams looks for an opening to pass the ball to a teammate during the Jan. 20 game against the Hartsville Red Foxes.
Photo by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
It was close, it was hard fought, but in the end it was still not enough for Darlington, as the Falcons dropped its first region game of the season against the Hartsville Red Foxes.
With two opportunities to tie the game and force overtime in the final 10 seconds of the game, the Falcons were unable to convert, resulting in 58-55 loss this past Friday.
“We actually had two really good looks,” Darlington boys head coach Ken Howle said on the two final shots. “Kris’shawn (Hickman) got a good look and TraQuan (Scott) I thought made a good move to get a look.”
Up by one point at the end of the first quarter, Darlington lost its lead quickly as Hartsville was able to get out in transition, generating fast break point after fast break point, turning a one-point deficit into a 14 point lead at half.
“The whole first half all of their scoring was layups, dunks or transition,” Howle said, commenting on Hartsville’s offense.
In the third quarter, however, the Falcons began to tighten up on defense, slowing up the Red Foxes transition offense, allowing Darlington to slowly crawl its way back into the ball game.
Down by nine heading into the fourth quarter, Darlington was in a need of an offensive spark and an offensive spark is exactly what it got as junior Jalian Smith helped generate an 8-0 run late, cutting the Red Foxes lead to 53-51 with just 48.5 seconds left in the game.
Following a timeout by Darlington at the 48.5 second mark there was a sequence of one Hartsville free throw, a Tabais Dixon layup and another Red Fox free throw, that set up one of the biggest moments, if not the biggest moment of the game with 22.7 seconds left.
With Hartsville leading 55-53, Tyshaun Johnson drove the lane drawing a foul and giving Darlington its best chance of tying the game.
Call it nerves, with Johnson being a sophomore, or call it exhaustion with him playing most of the game and not having his legs underneath him, Johnson missed both shots, squandering a golden opportunity to flip the pressure back on the Red Foxes.
“I feel for Ty (Tyshaun),” Howle said. “He had two free throws to tie the game and came up short, but that’s some experience and he was fatigued, I’m sure, shooting with his legs; you got to get your legs into it.”
After Hartsville made a free throw following Johnson’s misses, Dixon made another layup, cutting the lead to 56-55. Hartsville, however, made both free throws on its next possession and Darlington could not make a three-point shot on two different opportunities in the final 10 seconds to tie the game and force overtime.
While the loss was disappointing for the Falcons, especially with it coming to one of their biggest rivals, it was an impressive comeback for such a young Falcons team that has had their fair share of adversity this season.
“That was the positive of it,” Howle said. “They fought real hard and gave us a chance to win.”
Darlington’s overall record after the game is 10-9 overall, 2-1 in the region.
Weekly Recap
The Falcons won their other game of the week, dominating Lugoff-Elgin 56-27 at home Tuesday, January 17.
