Clockwise from top left, John Jay’s Will Civetta drives against Mac Keller of Fox Lane. Even Mayers of Fox Lane drives the lane. Colin Bishop scores two in the paint for the Wolves. Logan Mammola gets off a jump shot as Mathias Baez defends for John Jay. Owen Baker of Fox Lane drives the lane. Jim MacLean Photos
By JIM MACLEAN
Game on the line, final minutes in front of a big crowd against a big rival, somebody has to step up and make a big play and hit some clutch free throws if you want to come out on top. That was the scenario for the Fox Lane and John Jay boys varsity basketball teams Jan. 18.
Fox Lane was a perfect eight-for-eight from the free throw line down the stretch as the Foxes pulled out a 48-43 victory over the Wolves.
“We’ll take it, this is always a tough game, John Jay and Fox Lane have been rivals for a long time, a lot of our kids play sports together in clubs, never a game either team wants to lose, always a battle, never easy,” admitted Fox Lane coach Mike Tomassi. “You need to make free throws and be good on defense to be successful, and we made some big shots and pulled it out tonight.”
Trailing by one with two minutes left with John Jay holding a 37-36 lead, Fox Lane went on an 8-0 run to take control with six of those points coming from the charity stripe. Arthur Shevick sank two free throws to give the Foxes the lead at 38-37, and then it was Mac Keller stepping up with three big plays for the Foxes. Keller sank a pair of free throws to make it 40-37, and he then drove the baseline and made a nice pass for the assist as Eli Daglio scored for the Foxes. Shevick then sank two more free throws to make it 44-37.
John Jay would not go away quietly as Ryan Valdes hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to four, but then Keller scored for the Foxes with 24 seconds left. Valdes hit another three-pointer to make it a one-possession game at 46-43, but with six seconds left Evan Mayers sank two free throws to make the final score 48-43.
“I thought we played really well, a good crowd, a rivalry game and our kids played really hard, but it’s frustrating, they got to the line 23 times and they made them count,” said John Jay coach Tyler Sayre. “Free throws and just finishing around the rim made the difference. We’ve got to clean it up a little bit on the offensive end and finish in the paint.”
Shevick led the way for Fox Lane as he scored a game-high 17 points. He made 11 out of 12 free throws as the Wolves held him below his scoring average with Brendan Corelli sticking close to him all over the court on defense.
“Arthur is really good, one of the better players we’ll face all season,” Sayre said of Shevick. “He scored a lot of free throws, but only two shots and I thought we defended him pretty well.”
With the Wolves focused on Shevick on defense, other players had to step up and score for the Foxes to pull it out. Daglio and Logan Mammola each finished with seven points for the Foxes, while Keller added six points overall. Evan Mayers finished with four points, Owen Baker scored three, and Will Broghammer and Janak Bain each scored two to round out the scoring for the Foxes.
“Keller has been great, a kid that works really hard, a competitor, and Baker played great tonight,” added Tomassi. “Everybody knows about Arthur, but we have a good supporting cast and we’re pretty deep. Now it’s about finding consistency and continuing to work hard and keep moving forward.”
For John Jay, Will Rickel finished with 11 points to lead the Wolves. Will Civetta scored the first five points of the game as the two teams were tied at 5-5 after the first quarter, and he finished with 10 points overall all in the first half. Valdes got hot after halftime and scored all 10 of his points in the second half with eight of them coming in the fourth quarter. Colin Bishop scored six points, Mark Fein added four, and Corelli scored two to round out the scoring for the Wolves.