By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Trailing by double digits in the second half, the Wilson-Magnet Wildcats used a pair of fourth-quarter rallies to down the Leadership Academy Lions, 67-65 in RCAC action, Tuesday night.
And a player who contributed four points proved to be the difference.
“Two in a row after coming out O and three,” said Wilson senior Robert Davis referring to the Wildcats record. “We got to get back on track. This was a good game to be back on track.”
Davis drilled a catch-and-shoot three off an inbound pass to give Wilson a 65-63 edge with less than 40 seconds remaining in the game. His two free throws with 19.7 on the clock served as game winners.
Erasing the deficit, though, took the combined defensive efforts of the Wildcats and in particular Tory Bradley.
“We just fed off his energy,” Davis said of his teammate. “We knew we could come together as a team in the fourth. We just had to stay patient and let the game come to us.”
Bradley shouldered the responsibility of defending Leadership’s top scorer, Rondell Watson.
During a pivotal five-possession sequence, Bradley blocked a pair of Watson attempts off the drive.
“Our team defense was pretty good, and Tory just did a great job individually on Rondell forcing him into tough shots,” Wilson head coach Brendan O’Toole said.
After scoring 10 straight to start the fourth, Wilson watched as Watson responded with a pair of buckets to help the Lions regain a five-point advantage with 5:33 remaining in the game.
The Wildcats mounted another comeback. Their defense forced a pair of shot-clock violations and held Leadership without a basket for nearly three minutes.
“I don’t know if they were trying to run the shot clock down or if they just weren’t getting the good looks,” O’Toole commented. “They’re generally not a team that takes that long to get a shot off.”
At the other end of the floor, Davis converted a pair of free throws. Arthur Wilson connected from behind the arc for three of his 13 points, and Brennan Clark gave Wilson a lead it did not surrender with a pair of putbacks.
“They couldn’t find a space to move,” Davis explained. “We knew Rondell was going to get the ball. He was going to be the focus of the offense in the fourth. He was going to try and take over. Plus, he didn’t have a good first half, so I knew he was going to come out strong in the second half. We just had to contain him, and that’s what we did.”
Kennyh Hardeman nailed a baseline jumper to give Leadership a 48-37 advantage with less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Lions still had the double-digit lead when Watson found Hardeman on the break. Two possessions later, Watson went the length of the floor for a layup and a 52-42 Leadership advantage.
“We get in the habit sometimes of just watching and seeing who gets the rebound,” O’Toole explained. “Against a team like Leadership it’s too late. If you’re not back on the release of the shot, they’re going to get a layup at the other end.
“We had to play smarter. We had some bad turnovers. The game plan was to send the one, two and three back so to take away their transition. They really thrive on that. We kinda got away from that, and they got some buckets in transition. It was just about playing smarter than anything else.”
The loss was the second straight for Leadership and third in their last four games.
“It felt like a relief more than anything else,” O’Toole said of the win. “We haven’t beaten them in the regular season the last few years. We had the nice win a couple years ago in sectionals, but it was a little more of a relief than anything else to get these guys in the regular season.”
Clark finished with nine points. Malikk Johnson had seven. Christian Harmon and Maurice Young added six apiece. Desi Floyd chipped in with two points for the Wildcats (3-4). Wilson play at Athena on Thursday. A 6:45 PM tip off is scheduled.
Watson, averaging 27.8 points per game coming into the contest, finished with 13. Hardeman paced Leadership with 20. Maurice McKinney and Marquise Sabalier had 10 apiece. Nate Doyle and Shamir McCullough both scored six for Leadership (4-3). The Lions host East on Leadership. A 6:15 PM start time is slated.
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