By Angela Watts
DigitalSports.com
(Look below the story for dozens of video highlights from Friday’s game.)
Raw emotion — from both teams and from opposite sides of the spectrum — poured out at the end of fourth-ranked Langley’s narrow, 52-50, come-from-behind victory over fifth-ranked South Lakes on Friday.
Three Seahawk players collapsed to the floor and laid there for a long moment, while others tugged at their jerseys or covered their faces to hide their disappointment. Their large contingent of student fans, who stood and proudly cheered as their team led for nearly the entire game, stood frozen in disbelief.
On the other side of the court Langley coach Travis Hess rushed excitedly to the floor, where he was joined by a battalion of Saxon supporters. His assistant coaches, players, and more than a hundred students streamed out of the stands and onto the home hardwood, all of them jumping up-and-down and cheering wildly.
It was high school sports at its best.
“I can say now that I love games like this, but that’s because we won,” Langley senior Ryan Davenport said. “We were only up two at the end, and it was nerve-wrecking when they shot that three. I was going crazy out there.
“This is a huge win for us. South Lakes is a really, really great team. I can’t say enough about them. They pressured us in a way we hadn’t seen all year, and we had trouble scoring early. But once we settled down we were able to take our time with it, and luckily all of us got going at the end.”
The Seahawks (14-4 overall, 7-3 Liberty District) broke open a seven-point lead midway through the second quarter on the strength of back-to-back steals that were converted into quick baskets on the opposite end of the court, and maintained that margin heading into the break.
“We gave up way too many easy baskets in the first half,” Hess said.
“That’s what we talked about at half time. I’m a firm believer — I
don’t care if its third-grade basketball or varsity basketball or
college — that the team that scores the most easy baskets is going to
win. And we gave up way too many points in the paint in the first half
and so we talked about doing a better job of making them take contested
jump shots.
“If they took contested jump shots and we could
rebound, we thought we could crawl back into it one basket at a time.”
The Saxons (16-2, 8-2) chipped away at the Seahawks’ lead throughout the third quarter. They finally broke through when, after a mad scramble for a loose ball, junior Derek Baker pulled up on the left side and fired a three-pointer to put Langley ahead, 42-40, with just :02 seconds remaining in the period.
The two teams battled back-and-forth for much of the final frame until Davenport, who scored 11 of his game-high 17 points in the second half, began to work his magic in the paint. In the fourth quarter alone Davenport worked a spin move into a short fade-away jumper, drove the lane for a highlight-reel layup and also combined the two, spinning his way down the lane for another eye-catching basket.
“He’s tough,” said South Lakes coach Darryl Branch, who coached Davenport on an AAU team for three years. “He’s probably the best player in the region moving without the ball. He’s extremely intelligent. He knows how to find his shot, but he doesn’t force anything. He uses angles well.
“He’s just a complete player. He’s not the most athletic kid in the world, but he’s a very bright basketball player who finds a way to score. He’s been doing it all year.”
As a result, Davenport stands just 34 points shy of breaking the schools’ all-time career scoring record of 1,204 points.
“That’s why he’s the man; that’s why he’s our guy,” Hess said, in his fourth season. “He is a gamer. And the kid, I mean, I love the kid. He comes to play when it matters the most and he carries us and he has a knack for big baskets in big spots and is a scorer in every sense of the word.”
Still, South Lakes stayed within striking distance the entire fourth quarter. A beautifully-placed, alley-oop pass from senior guard Thomas Mayo to senior forward Jay Bowman for a layin with :58 seconds to go pulled the Seahawks within a single basket at 52-50. South Lakes got the ball back and drew an intentional foul call on a fast-break opportunity, but missed both ensuing free throws, so the score remained unchanged with :07.4 to play.
One last play — and one final three-point attempt — bounced off the back of the rim as the buzzer sounded, igniting both the Saxons’ celebration and the Seahawks’ heartbreak.
South Lakes similarly fell to Langley, 65-64, on Jan. 8.
“They really wanted this game,” Branch said of his players. “Their expression and the way they carry themselves now shows that it means a lot to them. And I told the guys that, hopefully, if the basketball gods are looking over us they’ll give us another shot at Langley, hopefully for the district title and on our floor. And we can get the banner and the win there, and they can have these two W’s.”
Email: awatts@digitalsports.com
South Lakes 10 19 11 10 — 50
Langley 10 12 20 10 — 52
South Lakes — Williams 2 3-3 7; Mayo 2 0-0 5; Keys 4 0-1 9; Clark 3 4-5 10; Bowman 4 0-0 8; Price 5 1-1 11. Team totals: 20 8-10 50. Langley — Hunter 1 3-3 5; Sekel 1 0-0 3; Baker 3 0-0 8; Davenport 8 0-1 17; Malik 2 2-2 6; Kody 4 4-5 13. Team totals: 18 9-11 52. Three pointers — South Lakes 2 (Keys, Mayo); Langley 4 (Baker 2, Kody, Sekel).
JV Score: South Lakes 50, Langley 42
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