By Jim Montecalvo, Staff writer

jmontecalvo@observer-reporter.com

WAYNESBURG - The Grove City College men's basketball team is becoming accustomed to winning games in dramatic fashion. And the Wolverines also are getting used to Shawn Carr providing the winning points.

In December, Carr made a desperation three-pointer as time ran out to help Grove City knock off Washington & Jefferson. The Wolverines also nipped Geneva at the buzzer and beat Westminster in overtime.

So it wasn't a big surprise to the Grove City players and coaches when Carr made three-point field goals on consecutive possessions in the last minute of play to lift the Wolverines to a 73-71 come-from-behind victory over Waynesburg at Marisa Fieldhouse Wednesday night.

Carr's three-pointers erased Waynesburg's 70-66 lead with 1:06 left in regulation and kept Grove City (4-1, 10-5) at the top of the Presidents' Athletic Conference standings.

"He's our leading scorer and this is not the first time he's done that this year. This is his third time," Grove City coach Steve Lamie said. "Honestly, that's not coaching. That's a senior leader stepping up and performing.

"We were trying to set him up, but he was the first of three options in the play. Fortunately, he got open the two times we wanted him to."

The first of Carr's clutch three-pointers came with 57 seconds left and pulled the Wolverines to within one point of the lead at 70-69.

After Waynesburg (1-4, 6-8) missed a contested shot, Ryan Gibson found Carr open in the corner with nine seconds to play and the senior guard buried another long-range shot.

It was a tough loss for the Yellow Jackets, who led for the majority of the second half.

"Experienced teams do that," Waynesburg coach Frank Ferraro said. "They made shots when they had to. Give them all the credit in the world."

The Yellow Jackets still had a chance in the closing seconds.

Jered Gamble was fouled and made the front end of a one-and-one with eight seconds left to trim Grove City's lead to 72-71.

Bobby Turner gathered the rebound for the Wolverines on the second shot and was fouled with seven seconds to go. After a timeout, Turner made the first of two free throws, but missed the second.

Josh Parisi grabbed the rebound for Waynesburg and raced toward the Yellow Jackets' basket. But his cross-court pass was intercepted by Ryan Gerber and time expired.

"At the end, we didn't get a shot and that's probably the most disappointing thing," Ferraro said. "But we've got to get better from that and find a way to improve."

Carr's three-pointers in the final minute gave Grove City only its second lead of the half. The Wolverines trailed 50-42 with 12:20 to play, but worked the ball inside and scored from the free-throw line.

Grove City shot 19 free throws in the last 12 minutes and made 14. Waynesburg shot eight free throws in the second half.

"They took away a lot of our back cutting, so we had to go to Plan B," Lamie said. "We tried to go inside and get to the free-throw line to score and use our size advantage, which wasn't much."

The Wolverines' plan offset Tim Drakeley's game-high 25 points and a solid performance from Parisi, who scored 12 points and led Waynesburg with eight rebounds.

Drakeley, a Trinity graduate and the PAC's leading scorer at 21.9 points per game, made five three-pointers and had 10 points in the first half, when there were 14 lead changes.

"Our guys off the bench gave us some quality minutes and did some really good things, too," Ferraro said.

"In a game like this, you can look at a million different things and try to pinpoint what made a difference. The little things add up to big things."

Carr, who led the WPIAL in scoring as a senior at Mohawk High School, finished with 23 points. Gibson added 15 points and eight rebounds for the Wolverines, who trailed by seven points with three minutes left.

"At our morning shoot-around, we talked about having perseverance and how no game is out of reach either way," Lamie said. "We were fortunate down the stretch. I know that."

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