EUCLID —
Pat Moran’s statement was obviously not meant as a pearl of wisdom, but rather a pointed statement as to how his team played on Tuesday.
“When you have more assists to the other team than to your own team, you’re not going to win many games,” he said after his Madison boys came up on the short end of a 54-50 non-conference decision at Euclid.
The Blue Streaks did come close, missing a pair of shots in the waning seconds while down by two. But part of Moran’s point is that they wouldn’t have had to depend on that if they had done things better earlier.
True, the Panthers had one more miscue (25-24) than did Madison. But that doesn’t excuse the Blue Streaks for their own inability to take care of the basketball. Among other things, it helped to prevent them from extending a lead in the first half, and from losing the advantage or from falling behind by as much as 12 in the second half.
“We turned the ball over way too much,” Moran said. “They hit some shots we didn’t think they were going to hit. But those are shoits we want them to take. Fifty-four (points allowed) is a good enough defensive game.”
The Blue Streaks (4-9, 4-6) grabbed an early advantage and pushed it as high as 16-9 when Brandon Smith (8 points, 4 assists) inbounded to Stephan Ortiz (19 points, including 5 treys) for a layup to begin the second quarter. They held it through the break, at which time the advantage was 22-21.
Euclid (3-9) had shot an ice-cold nine-of-35 at that point, including one out of a multitude of 3-point attempts. But it heated up after the intermission, going 12 of 21, including seven triples.
Melek Sims, who actually hit a couple jumpers late in the first half to help get his team going, was the main culprit, as he put in the rest of his 17 points, and all three of his 3-pointers, in the final two quarters.
Threes by Vinnie Klun and Ty’Lnn Alexander (10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocked shots) opened the second-half scoring, finished an 8-0 Panther run started at the first-half buzzer, and gave them the lead for good at 27-22.
Euclid expanded the margin gradually until a Sims 3-pointer and an Alexander layup extended it to 49-37 in the fourth period.
But after a pair of Ortiz treys, it was 49-43 with 3:24 to go. Sims hit a trifecta, but a 3-pointer by Mark Murray (6 assists) and two free throws by Smith cut it to 52-48 with just less than a minute to play.
The teams then exchanged turnovers, and then after a Madison foul, a Euclid player was called for a technical, giving the Blue Streaks two free throws and possession with 21 seconds remaining.
Smith made the foul shots to complete a 13-3 surge. But Ortiz’s 3-point attempt from the right corner barely rimmed out. Murray rebounded, but another Madison attempt missed from the lane.
Sims wrapped it up by converting a one-and-one with 1.6 seconds on the clock.
Moran related that although his team isn’t very deep and is playing with fatigue, they can’t use that as an excuse.
“I thought that if we played the first 29 minutes like we played the last three minutes, we win that game,” he said.
“We didn’t play that way. That’s what happens when you just come in and think you’re going to just walk over guys. It doesn’t happen that way. So I’m very disappointed in that.”
Anthony Coleman had 10 points and four assists, and Chavez Harper eight boards and two blocks for the Panthers. Garrett Primer put in 10 points and Brett Monty added eight caroms for Madison.
“We have five timeouts a game, which is enough,” Moran said. “I have to burn three because we can’t get the ball over halfcourt in time. So we don’t have a timeout at the end of the game. That’s just a lack of execution. You can’t put yourself in those situations, and we did. It’s tough to come back from those things.”
Goldman is a freelance writer from South Euclid.
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