Senior night has a sour taste as Falcons fall to Gators
Sa’Von Williams keeps the ball away from Lakewood player.
Photo by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
For three quarters Darlington was better than the Lakewood Gators; for three quarters it looked like the Falcons were going to improve to 3-1 in the region, but that was for three quarters and a basketball game is four quarters.
After three solid quarters of basketball, the Falcons crumbled in the fourth quarter, shooting just two of eight from the field with five turnovers, scoring only four points in the final period while the Gators scored 14.
That final quarter collapse resulted in a 37-35 defeat for the Falcons at home on senior night this past Friday.
“I feel for them, I’m hurting, I know they’re hurting,” Darlington boys head coach Ken Howle said. “I thought we played good enough to win, we just didn’t win and that is just how it goes sometimes.”
Despite the lopsided scoring and poor shooting in the final period, Darlington had its chances to win in the final minute.
Down 34-33, Darlington’s Jalian Smith put the Falcons back up by one with 45.3 left on the clock. That field goal, however, was the last points of game for Darlington.
After Smith’s go-ahead field goal, Howle called a quick timeout to set up the Falcons defense and it looked like a perfect call. Coming out of the timeout, Darlington forced a turnover and called another timeout, giving the Falcons possession with just 23.9 seconds left and a one-point lead.
With the ball, momentum and, most importantly, with the clock on its side, it looked like Darlington was going to escape with a win on senior night after that Lakewood turnover.
Unfortunately for Darlington, that was not the case because following Lakewood’s turnover the Falcons committed a turnover of their own setting up the Gators with two free throws with 14.5 seconds left.
“We had some costly turnovers from underneath back to the point,” Howle said. “When they get those, they get layups at the other end. When we made them work it was hard for them, but if they get layups because of a turnover like that, that’s just beating yourself.”
After hitting both free throws and giving Lakewood a 36-35 lead, Darlington moved the ball up court and called back to back timeouts, giving the Falcons as much time as possible to set up for a potential game-winning play.
Coming out of the timeouts, Lakewood had fouls to give and immediately did it on Darlington’s first inbound attempt. On the second attempt Tabais Dixon got open, but a slight hesitation allowed the Gator defender to rotate over and he blocked Dixon’s game-winning attempt.
Darlington fouled with less than a second on the clock and Lakewood added one more free throw, extending the lead to 37-35.
As the buzzer sounded Darlington was forced to swallow a bitter pill as a golden opportunity to improve to 3-1 in the region and control its destiny took a serious blow.
“We have to be a little smarter with the basketball, we had some crucial, crucial, crucial moments with the lead, with the ball, with timeouts and we made some poor decisions,” Howle said. “Hopefully these guys will keep learning from it, the potential is there, but you can’t make plays like that against good teams.”
Smith was Darlington’s leading scorer with 10 points and the Falcons only shot 35% from the field.
The loss drops Darlington’s record to 10-10 overall, 2-2 in the region. This was the only game the Falcons had this past week.
