Bucs’ late rally falls short in loss at Brownsville
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Chartiers-Houston’s Jake Mele blocks a shot by Brownsville’s Demarion Brown during Friday night’s non-section game at Brownsville.
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Chartiers-Houston coach Rich Tranquill talks with Jordan Irson during a break in Friday night’s game at Brownsville.
BROWNSVILLE – Rich Tranquill enjoyed his return as a high school boys basketball coach even if his Chartiers-Houston squad came up short in a 35-32 non-section loss at Brownsville on Friday night.
“It was nice getting back into it,” said Tranquill, an Avella graduate who coached Burgettstown for seven years before stepping down in 2017. “I love the game. We’ve got a great group of kids. We’ve got a great staff. It’s fun being back around it.”
Now he’ll have to wait until 2021 rolls around to coach his second game with the Bucs as winter sports was shut down starting Saturday until at least Jan. 4 by Gov. Tom Wolf due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bucs held the lead most of the first half before the Falcons rallied in the third quarter and pulled out to a 33-24 lead with 5:15 left in the fourth in a slow-paced defensive battle.
Chartiers-Houston kept fighting and whittled the gap to six on two foul shots by Avery Molek with 1:44 left but failed to take advantage of two straight Brownsville turnovers and then missed two free throws with 40.9 seconds remaining.
Jordan Irson hit a driving bank shot to pull the Bucs within 35-31 with 26 seconds left but they could not cash in on two more Falcons turnovers.
Chartiers-Houston’s Emanuel Ntumngia was fouled when he tried to heave a 3-pointer with 0.2 seconds remaining that was well off the mark. He made the second of the three foul shots, missing the third on purpose but the ball deflected of a Falcon player and time ran out.
“We preach work hard and this is a good group of kids that’s going to continue to do that from the beginning of the game to the end of the game,” Tranquill said. “I thought we did pretty good against their pressure but Brownsville played a nice game.”
Irson led the Bucs with nine points and Austin Arnold had eight, all in the first half, including a bank shot with four seconds left to give the visitors a 19-17 halftime lead.
The Bucs led 11-7 after the first quarter and didn’t trail until Ayden Teeter, who scored a game-high 11 points, scored to give Brownsville a 23-21 advantage with 6:14 left in the third quarter.
A basket by Ntumngia put Chartiers-Houston back on top, 24-23, but Teeter scored right before the third-quarter buzzer and then dropped in consecutive baskets to begin the fourth and the Falcons rode a 10-point run to its nine-point lead.
“We had our first scrimmage Wednesday so we really haven’t had a lot of time to prepare against other teams in competition, and we have a little bit of a new system from last year,” Tranquill said.
“With all that, I’m happy of the way the kids performed tonight.”