Reynolds outlasts Wilmington
Wilmington (50) Vs. Reynolds (52)
By DAN IRWIN
d_irwin@ncnewsonline.com

Reynolds High’s Chris Laverty doesn’t need many second chances.

However, on the rare occasion when the Raiders’ all-time leading scorer does misfire, opponents would be wise not to give him one.

Laverty, who drained six 3-point field goals en route to a 33-point performance at Wilmington last night, missed on his final try from beyond the arc with 25 seconds left. That left the Greyhounds with the ball and a one-point lead in their PIAA District 10 Region 3-AA encounter.

Ten seconds later, though, Wilmington committed a turnover and a technical foul, setting Laverty up for redemption. After Russ Conley knotted the score by hitting the back end of the two-shot technical, Laverty went on to sink two more free throws with 3.3 seconds left to lift Reynolds to a 52-50 win.

“He’s the type of kid, in a big game situation, he’s going to step it up,” Reynolds head coach Scott Weaver said of Laverty. “There’s no question about it, he did tonight. He’s just that special of a ballplayer.”

Actually, Laverty’s game-winning foul shots were sort of a double do-over for the 6-foot senior guard.

“Chris, the last time we played (West) Middlesex, he had two foul shots with the chance to ice the game, and he ended up missing both of them, which he never does,” Weaver said.

“I knew when he walked up to the line this time, these were going to be down.”

Only one other player, 6-9 senior Russ Conley, hit double figures for Reynolds (2-0, 13-1) with an 11-point effort.

Wilmington (1-1, 7-5) got 21 points and 10 rebounds from senior Dallas Hartman, 14 points from Shane Wagner and seven points and 12 rebounds from Carson Sharbaugh.

“Laverty, hats off to him,” Wilmington head coach Will Harris said. “He hit some hard shots. I felt we could have done a little bit better job defensively with him, but he’s just arguably the best player in the league.”

Despite Laverty’s dominanting performance, the Greyhounds stayed right with Reynolds, even building a 37-30 advantage with 1:53 left in the third period.

The Raiders battled back and took just their third lead of the night, 49-48, on a Laverty trey with 1:16 left in the game. However, when Wagner countered with a driving bucket and Laverty missed his final 3-point try shortly thereafter, Wilmington appeared ready to wrap up a victory.

As Jake DeMedal brought the ball up court, though, his pass to Jibreal Roberts sailed out of bounds with 15 ticks remaining. Frustrated, Roberts swatted the ball and was whistled for a technical.

That sent Conley to the line and, after he had tied the score, the Raiders were given possession. Laverty wound up being fouled by Hartman in the key, and he dropped in his free throws to give Reynolds the win.

“At the end there, one point up with 25 seconds, we should be able to seal the game,” Harris said. “We couldn’t take care of the basketball, made a mental mistake by one of our players to get a technical — those are things we just can’t do and think we’re going to win games.”

Though it was just the second conference game of the season, Harris considered the setback a big one.

“It was do or die tonight,” he said. “Now we’ve got to beat them up there if we want a chance at the region title.

“That’s a long ways away, we’ve got to take care of a bunch of league games in between there, but it’s going to be real hard to beat them on their home floor.”

Game Scoreboard
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 OT SCORE
Wilmington 13 13 13 11 0 50
Reynolds 10 14 12 16 0 52
Box Scores
REYNOLDS (52)
Russ Conley 4 2-6 11
Chris Laverty 11 5-6 33
Andrew Martin 0 0-0 0
Ben Cutshaw 1 0-0 2
Jake Galus 1 1-2 4
Mark Parker 1 0-4 2
Totals: 18 8-18 52

WILMINGTON (50)
Shane Wagner 6 1-4 14
Dallas Hartman 9 3-7 21
Carson Sharbaugh 3 1-3 7
Jake DeMedal 0 0-0 0
Jibreal Roberts 2 0-0 4
Matt Wagner 2 0-0 4
Ian Kelly 0 0-0 0
Anthony Derrick 0 0-0 0
Totals: 22 5-14 50

REYNOLDS 10 14 12 16 — 52
WILMINGTON 13 13 13 11 — 50

3-point goals — Reynolds 8 (Laverty 6, Conley 1, Galus 1); Wilmington 1 (S. Wagner 1).
JV score: Wilmington 52, Reynolds 30 High scorers: W — Curtis Bretz 12, Matt Moesta 10.
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