Weaver holds on — twice
- Updated: December 1, 2014
UPDATE: Forbes’ 4 free throws in final 13 seconds secure Bearcats’ first victory; girls edge Lincoln, too
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
LINCOLN — Daryl Hamby is on a never-ending quest for perfection and knows he has to take it as it comes.
His Weaver basketball team got a little closer to it Monday, beating Lincoln 65-51 in a school-day matinee to benefit the Lincoln student body. He figures his players will be pretty pleased with themselves about the win, but he doesn’t want them thinking they’ve arrived just because they finished for the first time this young season.
“We’re getting better as it goes on,” Hamby said. “I’m always looking for perfection and we’re not where I want us to be and I don’t want them to be happy with that. That’s a fear that I have – that they’re going to be happy because we won and this is not where we want to be at all yet.”
The Bearcats (1-2) did make progress. Last time out against Saks they couldn’t close a game that was tied entering the fourth quarter and lost by four. On Monday they let a comfortable lead almost slip away, but were able to hold it together enough down the stretch to stay in front.
They opened a 15-point halftime lead but needed four Delo Forbes’ free throws in the final 13 seconds to hold off the Golden Bears (3-2).
“Inexperience,” Hamby explained. “We’ve got a lot of guys – I think Delo probably has the most experience of anybody out there – not understanding what (the opponents are) trying to do and how we can go against it.
“Guys who had kind of a minimal role last year, they’re major players now; it’s a whole different way they’ve got to play. We had a chance to put the icing on the cake a few times and we didn’t. We’re happy with the win, but we could’ve done a lot better by just being smarter.”
The Bearcats used hawking ball pressure in the second quarter to break away from a close game. They held the Golden Bears scoreless for nearly the first four minutes of the quarter while scoring 10 straight points to take control.
“We just went brain dead,” Lincoln coach Rush Rutledge said. “Credit them with great defense, great pressure, though; in the first half they took us out of our offense.”
“That’s our only chance of winning ball games this year — pressure,” Hamby said.
Lincoln turned up the heat and dominated the boards in the second half to climb back into it. They never drew even, but had they converted layups and put-backs and made half the free throws they missed in the first three quarters it might have been a different story.
They trailed by 10 entering the fourth quarter, but had it to within three with four minutes to play. D.J. Bradford’s 3-pointer with 19 seconds left made it a two-point game, but they never got closer.
Forbes hit the first two of his four free throws with 12.7 seconds left, Lincoln’s Dee Whiteside matched them with 9.4 seconds left, then Forbes went to the line again with 8.9 seconds left and made two more for the final margin. Forbes was 6 for 6 from the line in the game.
“I was nervous because it was a clutch moment,” Forbes said. “In my head I knew I was going to make them, but I was shaking at the same time.”
Elliott Moore led Weaver with 17 points. Forbes had 13, Jalen Heath 12 and Craig Copeland 10. Whiteside led all scorers with 25, 17 in the second half. Zay Caldwell, playing his first game after rehabbing a football injury, and Bradford had 10 points each.
Weaver girls 29, Lincoln 27
Keara Scott made a free throw with nine seconds left to extend the lead and the Bearcats got a defensive stop at the end to secure their second victory of the season.
Mariah Thompson led Weaver (2-3) with 10 points. Ikeida Lawson had 21 points for Lincoln; she scored 15 in the second half and nine in the fourth quarter.
BOYS BOXSCORE
Weaver 65, Lincoln 61
WEAVER (1-2) – Delo Forbes 3 6-6 13, Craig Copeland 4 1-3 10, Jalen Heath 3 6-12 12, R.J. Wooden 0 0-0 0, Elliott Moore 7 3-3 17, Cameron Lynch 4 1-1 9, Marcus Sanders 0 2-4 2. Totals 21 19-29 65.
LINCOLN (3-2) – Isaac Davis 0 1-2 1, C.J. Orr 0 0-0 0, Zay Caldwell 4 1-3 10, Tyler Hemphill 2 0-0 4, D.J. Bradford 3 3-5 10, K.J. Collins 1 0-0 2, Quin Carmichael 4 1-2 9, Dee Whiteside 9 7-11 25, Tarez Ellis 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 13- 23 61.
Weaver 16 20 14 17 — 65
Lincoln 15 6 17 23 — 61
3-point goals: Weaver 2 (Forbes, Copeland); Lincoln 2 (Caldwell, Bradford). Total fouls: Weaver 21, Lincoln 18. Technical fouls: Forbes, Caldwell. Fouled out: Lynch, Caldwell, Hemphill.
GIRLS BOXSCORE
Weaver 29, Lincoln 27
WEAVER (2-3) – Ciara Hardy 1 0-2 2, Keara Scott 1 2-6 4, Tayanna Perry 3 0-1 6, Camron Logan 1 0-0 3, Emily Reed 1 1-2 4, Morgan Wigley 0 0-0 0, Mariah Thompson 4 2-6 10. Totals 11 5-17 29
LINCOLN – Katelynn Harmon 1 1-2 4, Ikeida Lawson 8 3-8 21, Gwen Bedford 1 0-0 2, Lymiah Connoy 0 0-0 0, Hannah Carmichael 0 0-2 0, Taylor Conway 0 0-0 0, Halimah Bin-yamin 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 4-12 27
Weaver 6 7 4 12 — 29
Lincoln 3 3 6 15 — 27
3-point goals: Weaver 2 (Logan, Reed); Lincoln 3 (Harmon, Lawson 2). Total fouls: Lincoln 13, Weaver 9. Technical fouls: Carmichael. Fouled out: Harmon.
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