No free throw attempts equals no victory for Falcons
Darlington’s Sa’Von Williams tries to maneuver around the Crestwood player who is guarding him. Photos by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
The doldrums for the Darlington Falcons basketball team continued this past Tuesday, February 7, as it dropped another game, this time losing 58-52 to the Crestwood Knights.
The loss, Darlington’s fifth straight, was another gut-wrenching defeat that saw the Falcons lead at least two-thirds of the game before succumbing to defeat.
This loss was, however, a bit different compared to some of the others that have plagued the Falcons season.
In countless losses this season free throw shooting has doomed the Falcons, as they were unable to protect a lead.
Well, fouls and free throw shooting were involved in this game as well expect for one major difference. The only free throw shots came from Crestwood.
For the entire game Crestwood committed only 11 fouls, six in the first half and five in the second half and it takes seven fouls in a half before the opposing team gets into the bonus for at least the one and one attempt.
“For us to be in a high school basketball game and one team is playing full court, man to man and we did not shoot one free throw in an entire game,” Darlington boys head coach Ken Howle said after the game. “Not only that, the other team never got in the bonus, they never put us in a one and one situation. So I don’t know how the officiating was, I know we didn’t shoot a free throw and the other team never got into the penalty.”
And while that was strange in itself, especially as Crestwood got to attempt 13 free throws, the even stranger part of it was how Darlington never got fouled on any of its shot attempts despite numerous possessions having obvious contact.
“If you attack and you tell your kids to attack and they don’t ever get to the free throw line or get rewarded with a call,” Howle said on the contact, but lack of call. “I had a guy go in for a dunk and there was plenty of contact and there was no call, we had a guy go in right at the end that should have been a three-point play.”
The curious foul situation was not the only reason that Darlington lost, however. In the second half Crestwood got hot from behind the arc hitting six three-pointers in the final two periods with four of those coming in the third quarter.
Tabias Dixon was Darlington’s leading scorer of the night with 17 points.
Weekly Recap
Darlington played a makeup game against the Lakewood Gators this past Thursday on the road, losing 59-49. It was the Falcons sixth straight loss.
Playoff Preview
After finishing 10-14 overall, 2-6 in the region, the Falcons are now off to the playoffs as a four seed and go on the road February 14 to take on the Berkeley Stags.
The winner will take the winner of the Myrtle Beach vs Dreher game on Saturday, February 18.