Saturday – February 12: Potter's On-line Sports photographer Jimmy Joe Savage said if you came to see a game you weren't disappointed. Wow! What a game it was... down to the last 8 seconds before you could safely say Wellsville had it in the bag.
This past Saturday evening the WHS Tigers hosted the East Liverpool Potters in a non-league backyard rivalry. After a dismal performance the night before with the Tigers losing to Southern Local lots of folks were wondering which team would show up. The Potters came into the Tiger's Den riding a six game winning streak and a 12&4 record on the season. They had already humiliated the Tigers with a 20 point win back in December. The team in blue was confident and gave the Tigers a whale of a game right to the last. There was no “gimme”. At the end of the first quarter the Potters were leading 22-20. At the half Wellsville held a slim three point lead with a 34-31 score.
The Potters came back in the third to tie the score at 34 all with 6:28 remaining in the quarter. After trading a basket each the Tigers took a two point lead with 4:35 remaining on the clock. By the end of three the Orange & Black held a nine point lead with a score of 51-42. Football Coach Dave Skinner agreed with us when we said it was the best third quarter we have seen Wellsville play all year. The Tigers were determined.
However the battle wasn't over. With just 2:33 left in the game the Potters tied it at 62 points apiece. Wellsville regained the lead at 69-65 with 1:07 left. It was tied at 69 with only a mere 0:35.2 seconds left in the fourth. Wellsville once again regained a lead of 72-69 with 0:15.2 seconds showing on the clock and with 0:08 left in the game the Tigers put the game out of reach with one final bucket. We can't say it was the best game we've seen but it has to rank close to the top. Final score was Wellsville 74-69. It was sweet.
The Tigers had three scorers in double digits. Wellsville's Mike Johnston was hot recording a game high 27 points on the night. Jalen DeSarro took second in game high points with 19 and Freshman Nate Scott put 10 points of his own in the books. The win puts Wellsville at 12&5 on the season.
The Wellsville Reserves won the opening match by a final score of 56-43. They took a nine point lead at the end of one quarter and never trailed at the end of any quarter after that. Freshman Seth Bradford had 16 points for game high in that contest.
It was Bug Thompson basketball with in your face defense and running to get the ball into scoring position. The foul shooting practice paid big dividends. Johnston had 9 of 11 shots from the line, DeSarro hit 5 of 8, Christian Kapp 5 of 6 and Junior Josh Carter was 100% going 6 for 6 at the charity stripe.
The Tigers have three make-up games left to finish the regular season. They are all league games. Their first one is the coming Saturday when Sebring comes to town. Good luck guys. Don't lose that intensity you showed this past Saturday.
Gooo Tigers...
ole nib
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