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Carr keys Grove City victory at W&J
The motto for the Grove City College men's basketball could be "Just Enough to Win."
The Wolverines, the defending Presidents' Athletic Conference champions, have made a habit of winning games in nail-biting fashion. They've overcome a 21-point second-half deficit to beat Juniata, trailed by one point against Geneva with less than one second remaining - and had to go the length of the court - but found a way to win, and defeated Westminster in overtime last Wednesday.
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Grove City fought off a late charge by Washington & Jefferson when senior guard Shawn Carr made a desperation 22-footer from the right wing at the buzzer to give the Wolverines a 58-55 victory.
"Last year, in the first semester, we lost three overtime games in a five-game stretch," Grove City coach Steve Lamie said. "We have the same players this year. Does one year make a difference? I guess it does."
It also helps to have a player like the 6-1 Carr, who scored a game-high 16 points. Carr has made plenty of big shots in his career. He led the WPIAL in scoring at 28 points per game as a senior at Mohawk. Last season, on the same court, he made several key three-pointers late in the game to give Grove City a win over W&J in the PAC tournament final. None of those shots, however, were as well-defended as Carr's last one Saturday.
After W&J's Josip Lucic-Jozak banked in a shot with exactly one minute remaining to tie the score at 55-55 - erasing an eight-point second-half lead for Grove City (2-0, 6-1) - the Wolverines controlled the ball for the remainder of the game. Bobby Turner missed a three-pointer but Luke Tomaselli tracked down the rebound for Grove City and the Wolverines called a timeout with 29 seconds left.
"Carr was one of our three options at that point, along with Joe McCoy and Ryan Gibson," Lamie explained. "W&J took away all of those."
So Tomaselli drove to the basket, but his shot was rejected by Wahab Owolabi and went out of bounds with four seconds to play. Carr inbounded the ball along the baseline and was able to get it back from Andy O'Keefe in the corner. Moving back to the right wing, and with Derek Syrylo closely defending, Carr tossed up the game-winning fadeaway shot at the buzzer.
"You don't practice that shot," Lamie said. "That's a senior making a play when Plans A, B and C are taken away. That's not coachable."
"I knew I had a couple of inches on Syrylo, so I tried to shoot it over him," Carr explained. "He was all over me. He did everything right."
Even W&J coach Glenn Gutierrez praised Syrylo's defense.
"There is not one other thing Derek could have done," he said.
What the Presidents (0-1, 3-3) could have done better is execute their offense in the first 10 minutes of the second half. That's when Grove City, the preseason favorite in the PAC, went from a three-point halftime deficit to a 49-41 lead.
The Presidents rallied when they started pounding the ball inside to the 6-8 Lucic-Jozak, who scored 11 of the Presidents' final 17 points. But Grove City's edge in experience - W&J plays four freshmen and does not have a senior - showed in the final minute.
"That's a big difference," Gutierrez said. "The kids from Grove City have all been there and done that. They've made big shots before, especially Shawn Carr. They don't get rattled and play with composure.
"The biggest thing I liked about today was, when I was walking through the locker room, I saw the pain on the face of each of our players. That showed me this is important to them and that they're passionate about what they're doing. We're heading in the right direction."
Notes
Lucic-Jozak led W&J with 14 points and Syrylo scored 12. Owolabi had a game-high 12 rebounds. ... Gibson scored 12 points and O'Keefe had 10. ... W&J point guard Matt Drakeley (toe) and Grove City senior guard Joe Gerber (shoulder) did not play. ... W&J's Adam Braithwaite had six assists. ... W&J is off until Dec. 18 when it hosts LaRoche.
