Wright City basketball coach Ken Brown cited a lack of execution and missed free throws down the stretch in the Wildcats’ five-point double overtime loss to Silex High School last Wednesday.
Despite holding a two-point lead with 13 seconds left in the fourth quarter and holding the last possession in the first overtime period, the Wildcats fell 60-55 in double overtime. Brown said the players played hard but did not execute down the stretch to secure the victory.
“(We) had a lot of wide open layups we missed,” Brown said. “A lot of free throws that we didn’t make. We just got to do better executing down the stretch when it gets to that point.”
After entering halftime tied at 21-21, Wright City started the second half on a 9-3 run to claim a 30-24 lead. They held the lead until there was about three minutes left in the fourth quarter when Silex’s Tyler Twellman hit a two-pointer. Brown called a timeout with 2:50 left in regulation. After the Wildcats and the Owls traded baskets, Wright City junior Tim Sheff hit a three point shot to give the Wildcats a 43-31 lead. After Silex tied the game, Wright City junior Carleon Jones scored two points to give the Wildcats a 45-43 lead.
Owls guard Josh Price missed a three point shot and the Wildcats held the lead with 13.4 seconds left. Coming out of the timeout, the Wildcats were unable to break the press. They turned the ball over and Silex was able to tie the game and send it into overtime.
“That’s on me,” Brown said. “They were doing man to man press. I drew up something I had a person that threw the ball in bounds that does not normally throw the ball in bounds. I got to put people in a position to be successful. That’s not his role to throw the ball in bounds so he kind of didn’t know. But it was just the person I had at the time and I ran with it. It’s bad coaching and bad execution.”
Wright City senior guard Trent Bruning led the Wildcats to an early lead in the second overtime. Bruning scored a pair of two-point baskets to give Wright City a 49-45 lead. Silex senior Blake Thoroughman hit a three point shot to trim the Wildcat lead to one. After Carleon Jones hit one out of two free throws for Wright City to extend the lead to two, Silex guard Wesley Perkins scored to tie the game with just under one minute left. With Silex content to stay in their zone defense, Wright City was able to run down the clock for one final shot. After a couple missed layup opportunities, Jones was fouled with 0.4 seconds left. He went to the free throw line with a chance to give the Wildcats a late lead in overtime. Jones missed the front end of a one-on-one and the game went into double overtime.
After a back and forth first part of double overtime, Silex claimed a 54-53 lead on a two point basket by Colin Twellman. Wright City’s Hayden Waters responded with a two point score to give Wright City a 55-54 lead. A Wright City foul on the perimeter gave Silex two free throw attempts. Josh Price made both free throws to give Silex a 56-55 lead. After Silex extended its lead to 58-55, Wright City had one chance to tie the game. Thoroughman stole the ball and scored a layup as time expired to clinch the win for the Owls.
“I didn’t have any timeouts,” Brown said. “I’m trying to get some sort of ball screen. Top ball screen action. But you know kids kind of panicked. They’ve never been in that situation in the last few games we haven’t been .So it was tough. Silex played hard and credit to them. They executed a lot better than we did down the stretch. And you know they just pounded us inside. We’re just so small it’s just tough for us to get a gauge on how to play those guys.”
Brown stressed that the Wildcats need to do a better job of converting free throws. If they made free throws down the stretch, the game would have been over, he said. He also cited silly fouls down the stretch.
“I’ve got a sophomore out there playing and that was just a bad foul down the stretch…He just fouls. There’s no point,” Brown said. “We just got to understand being in that situation a lot more. And it’s frustrating for my point guard Trent (Bruning) as a senior. It’s frustrating because the guys can’t execute or finish down the stretch but that’s just who we have right now at this point. We’ve just got to be better.”