By TIM IRVING
Ryan Garwood’s first memory of being around his father JJ’s Northstar Christian Academy basketball team was winning a title and those are the only goals the junior seeks.
“I think I was five years old, we won a Sectional title in 2008, Blue Cross Arena, just celebrating,” he said after the Knights held off Bishop Kearney 79-74 Friday night to improve to 3-0 on the year.
Both he and his dad reached milestones in the game. With the first of back-to-back three-pointers in the third quarter, his only triples of the game, Garwood reached the 1,000-point plateau. With the victory, JJ earned his 250th career victory as coach of the Knights.
Both teams came out hot, Xavier Gissendanner scoring eight points for the Kings while Gage Wheaton had seven and Andrew Eschner canned a pair of threes for the Knights and Northstar led 21-19 after one.
Needing eight points to get to 1,000, Garwood instead dished out six assists and went to the basket instead of settling for contested shots, finishing the half with seven points. Teammate Turner Harris had 10 of his 12 first half points in the second quarter and the Knights lead 38-33. Gissendanner leading the way for the Kings with 14 points, all on two-pointers.
In the third, Chris Taggert stuck a long three to tie the game at 39 before Garwood started to find his range. His milestone three giving his team a 42-41 lead.
“I liked how he allowed the game to come to him, didn’t force it and just played in the natural rhythm,” JJ said after the game.
A short time later, one of Ryan’s eight assists went to Harris for a dunk and a seven-point lead.
But the Kings refused to go away and when Taggert beat the third quarter buzzer with a three-pointer, the Knights’ lead was 57-56.
The fourth quarter started with Zacarr Johnson converting a three-point play to give Bishop Kearney the lead before Northstar went on an 8-0 run, six points coming from Garwood.
Kearney responded again with a loud Edmari Binion dunk and Gissendanner’s only three-pointer of the game, on his way to a team-high 23 points.
With three minutes left, Harris hit a foul line jumper to put the Knights up six and Garwood continued to knock down free throws, going 14-of-15 in the game from the charity stripe.
With 33.6 seconds to go, Johnson hit a jumper and on the ensuing inbounds pass, Garwood was called for an offensive foul. Binion scored inside again and the lead was 76-72 with 27 seconds left.
With 5.2 seconds left, Binion scored on a tip-in to make the score 77-74 but the Kings had to foul Garwood, who sank both free throws to lock up the 79-74 win.
Garwood finished with a game-high 27 points but it’s the poise that JJ has been cultivating in his son for the last four years that’s made the biggest difference.
“I give a lot of the credit for Ryan’s development as a player to Michael Brown and Miles Brown because they made a big investment in Ryan and really pushed him in practice to make him better,” JJ said.
Beating Kearney still meant more to the Garwoods than the milestones.
“This showed a lot about our team. Defensively, I think we did good on the boards, a little tough but as a team, we’re working on that. It really just proved that we can play with anybody, I believe,” Ryan said.
Scoring:
Bishop Kearney
Azavier Ross (4), Zacarr Johnson (10), Xavier Gissendanner (23), Colin Gentile (3), Chris Taggert (12), Wilfredo Sanchez (3), Edmari Binion (15), Shawn Anderson (4)
Northstar Christian Academy
Gage Wheaton (13), Turner Harris (22), Ryan Garwood (27), Larry O’Neal (7pts, 11 rbs), Andrew Eschner (8), David Gueker (2)
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