Weir boys drop road defeat

MOUNDSVILLE - On a night when John Marshall High School honored the senior stars from its first state tournament-qualifier in boys' basketball, the 2009-10 Monarchs appeared bent on proving they can carve out a winning niche for themselves.

Jeremy Hays and Casey Clutter hit the key free throws in the closing seconds of overtime, enabling Coach Bill Storm's club to escape with a 54-52 victory against Weir in Wednesday night's battle of the undefeated at the John Marshall Field House.

''These kids want to create a personality for themselves,'' Storm said after the Monarchs won their third straight game to open the season. ''They are so tired of hearing about last year. We had a message on the board before the game telling them to prove everyone wrong. They certainly did that.''

Although facing a team with great size and on a roll from a 4-0 start, John Marshall came out on fire, scoring the first nine points of the game. The early run was capped when sophomore Aaron Fonner drained a 3-pointer from the left side of the circle.

''We learned a very valuable lesson,'' said Mike Granato, the disappointed coach of the Red Riders. ''The first part of that is we have to be ready to play 32 minutes-plus every night. We just weren't ready at the beginning but we kind of righted the ship a little bit and took the lead at halftime.

''Then we struggled again in the third quarter before coming back to tie the game at the end of regulation. But our guys are going to have to do a better job in terms of execution down the stretch if we are going to win these close games.''

Weir did bounce back late in the fourth quarter to take a one-point lead with time winding down on the clock. Trailing 46-40 after the Monarchs' Hays drove to the hoop for a conventional three-point play with 2:07 left in regulation, the Red Riders' Shawn Burns nailed a triple from the left wing.

Seconds later, he made it a 46-45 game with a steal that turned into a layup.

A backcourt violation gave Weir the ball back for a third straight time at the 1:06 mark. After Burns' 3-point attempt was off the mark, Justin Horstman wound up with the basketball along the baseline and swished his short jumper to give the visitors a 47-46 edge.

With 42 seconds showing, JM's Clutter stepped to the line on the double-bonus and made the second shot, tying the score at 47-47.

With fouls to waste before putting Weir on the stripe. the Monarchs used two of them, the second one leaving the Riders with just four seconds to attempt a game-winning shot, which Burns missed from 3-point land.

John Marshall never trailed in the overtime after Justin Wade scored on a layup and the quick-footed Hays connected following a beautiful move for a 51-47 advantage. He was cut off while driving to the basket, stopped quickly, went up and used the glass to cash a one-hander.

The Red Riders battled back to tie it up at 52-52 when Burns netted his driving layup, but the visitors then made the mistake of fouling Hays on the inbounds pass with only 15 seconds remaining.

John Marshall's 6-foot-1 senior standout capped off a 19-point evening by swishing the front end of the two-shot foul, but his second attempt skipped off the rim which gave Weir a late chance to pull out the victory.

Horstman misfired on his jumper and Clutter was fouled after securing the rebound with 2 seconds showing on the clock. He missed the first free throw but nailed the second one to close out the scoring.

Clutter ended with 11 points, while the 6-foot-4, 290-pound Wade added 10 as he battled gamely inside against Weir's twin towers, the 6-foot-8 Lawrence Campbell and Anthony Cato (6-foot-6).

Storm was delighted to see some extra scoring help for Hays, who had tallied 38 and 31 points in John Marshall's first two games.

''I challenged the kids at halftime that somebody had to step up and take the load off Jeremy,'' he said.

''Weir came in well-prepared and denied Hays the ball everywhere. When they went to the box-and-one we told our kids not to panic or take any bad shots, and we also reminded Jeremy not to try and do too much,

''Fortunately, it all worked out. The neat thing is they did a great job of defending Jeremy and he still had 19 points, including a couple of big buckets going to the hole late in the game.''

John Marshall's coach also credited his team's 1-2-2 zone with making a big difference in the game.

''We really scrapped and battled on the back line, holding our position. I thought we did a super job with the zone,'' Storm added.

Burns tallied 13 points, while Horstman added 12 to pace the Red Riders offense. The rangy Campbell finished with nine points.

Granato also had plenty to say about what Hays did to help the Monarchs escape with a victory.

''He did a great job of getting the other players involved. We did everything we could to slow him down by using different players trying to keep fresh legs on him,'' he said.

John Marshall 54, Weir 52, OT

Weir 9 16 6 16 5 - 52

John Marshall 13 10 11 13 7 - 54

WEIR: Burns 5-15 0-1 13; Horstman 5-11 2-2 12; Williams 2-2 0-0 4; Jones 0-0 0-0 0; Taylor 1-2 0-0 2; Brautigan 3-11 0-0 9; Cato 1-4 1-1 3; Campbell 4-10 1-4 9. 3-pointers: Burns (3), Brautigan. Totals: 20-55 4-8 52.

JOHN MARSHALL: Lightner 0-1 0-0 0; Hays 7-13 5-6 19; Wade 4-4 2-6 10; Lavenski 1-3 1-2 3; Lo.Martin 2-5 2-2 7; Lu.Martin 0-1 1-2 1; Fonner 1-4 0-0 3; Clutter 4-6 3-6 11; Hummell 0-0 0-0 0. 3-pointers: Martin, Fonner. Toals: 19-37 14-25 54.