CRUSHING LOSS: Iron Mountain One Point Short
EAST LANSING---The Iron Mountain High School boys basketball team had its first-ever state championship within its grasp on Saturday at Michigan State University. But a traveling call on a 2-on-0 basket and an intentional foul call in the final second helped the Pewamo-Westphalia Pirates pull out a stunning 53-52 victory to win the first state title in its school history. With the Mountaineers leading 52-51, Iron Mountain broke the Pirate full-court press defense, leading to what looked like it would be an easy layup for Tony Feira on the baseline. but the officials ruled that he took an extra step before laying it in, so traveling was called with five seconds to play. The Pirates inbounded the ball, and the Mountaineers, with only three team fouls in the second half, decided to use those “fouls to give” to try to milk out the remaining time, But Mountaineer junior Marcus Johnson was called for an intentional foul as he reached in on Collin Trierweiler. Instead of P-W having to inbound the ball with seven tenths of a second to play, Trierweiler was awarded two free throws and the Pirates would keep the ball. Trierweiler made both free throws (in between three Mountaineer time outs) and the Pirates had the stunning win. In the postgame press conference, Iron Mountain Coach Bucky Johnson tried to hold in the anger. “They called a travel on a made basket and an intentional foul on a play on the ball,” he said to the reporter’s obvious question. “Next?” Later, Johnson gave a more direct answer. “To have a state championship game come down to a play here or a play there. You know, I respect officials, but, man, judgment is critical,” he said. “You gotta forgive, I guess. I don’t know. Right now I’m angry. I’m joyful. I’ll be joyful for our effort, and sorrow’s going to be. I don’t know how that’s going to get in there, usually takes a while, after this emotion. It’s just tough.” And Johnson wasn’t done. “It’s my fault, because we had fouls to give. It’s my fault,” Johnson added. “We get a layup on a fast break. Travel. An intentional foul with point-seven seconds to go? I guess it comes down to judgement. Man, I don’t know. The way that guy reacted? Intentional foul? It’s part of the game. It stinks to be on this end of it. Everybody sitting in this room. Let’s be honest. I mean, come on. I’m not wrong here.” Before the controversial ending, it was a great back-and-forth contest, with the two undefeated teams from northern Michigan matching three-pointer after three-pointer, especially in the second half. The Mountaineers led by as many as eight points, but couldn’t hang on. Foster Wonders scored 20 points and Marcus Johnson added 17 for the Mountaineers. Andre Smith had 21 points and Aaron Bearrs added 15 for the Pirates. CLICK AUDIO BUTTON above to hear Coach Johnson's comments. CLICK HERE FOR THE STATISTICS BOX SCORE |