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Big Bang Theory: Groselle, Harmon get West back on winning track
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@acnpapers.com
After going scoreless through the first three quarters of Friday’s game against Plano East, Plano West senior Deshon Portley chose a good time to hit his first bucket.
With East down, 41-37, but making a push, Portley squared up and knocked down a 3-pointer to break a 12-0 East run and score West’s first points of the fourth quarter. The Wolves (3-4 in district) stayed in control from there and picked up the 58-47 victory over the Panthers (1-6 in district).
“We were making a run,” said Doug Bleadorn, East head coach. “Then Portley hit that 3-pointer on us and it sort of turned the momentum back to West.”
“Deshon was getting frustrated because there was always someone on him,” he said. “But I told him he was going to get his opportunity and he needed to be ready for it. East was making a run, so it was a really big shot for us.”
The man on Portley for most of the night was East senior Desmond Scott. In addition to keeping Portley in check for much of the night, Scott had a team-high 12 points and was the driving force for the Panthers during their late-third, early-fourth quarter run.
“Desmond was really solid defensively,” Bleadorn said, “and he hit some big shots.”
Those shots pulled East to within 41-37, the closest the Panthers had been since 9-5, with less than six minutes remaining. Aiding Scott in the push were sophomore Sawyer Kipp and freshman Bola Alade, who had eight and seven points, respectively, as well as senior Carlton Bryant, who had a team-high eight rebounds.
But East wouldn’t get as close as four points again following Portley’s trifecta. Portley, who had nine points, and senior Danny O’Leary, who scored 13, combined to make eight straight free throws in the final 90 seconds to seal the 58-47 victory.
It was a huge reversal for the Wolves, who were dreadful at the stripe before that.
“I think we’ve learned our lesson with free throws and this team,” Morgan said. “We made some rotations at the end and tried to manage the game better and I think that made a major difference tonight.”
It didn’t look like much game management would be needed early on as West broke the game open with a 12-2 run to close the first quarter. That run included back-to-back 3-pointers from junior Holt Harmon, who had a game-high 15 points to go with 11 rebounds, and was punctuated by a block from O’Leary at the buzzer.
Harmon and senior Geoffrey Groselle, who had a game-high 19 rebounds to go along with his 14 points, dominated the boards in the first half.
“We knew we had a size advantage,” Harmon said, “so we wanted to use it and we wanted to be aggressive.”
Both Harmon and Groselle had more rebounds at the break than East did as a team.
“West has big guys with long arms and a lot of size,” Bleadorn said, “and it can be tough to defend against that.”
That led to replays for much of the second quarter as East continually got one shot, West would get the rebound and then take as many shots and get as many rebounds as necessary to score. That led to a 31-14 Wolves advantage at halftime.
“We weren’t making any of our shots early,” Bleadorn said. “If you only score 14 points in a half, it’s going to be hard to hang with any team.”
West’s lead remained in double-figures until East’s run spilled into the beginning of the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t give up,” Bleadorn said. “The guys played hard and we were able to claw our way back.”
East made it interesting, but West grabbed the win.
“We haven’t been doing as well as we want to,” Harmon said. “But we had some good rebounds and made some hustle plays down the stretch tonight, so I think it was a step in the right direction.”
And it was a step West desperately needed to take.
“This was a must win,” Morgan said. “If we would have dropped that fifth district game midway through it would have been real difficult to come back, so we had to have this one.”
The second half of 8-5A begins Tuesday with West on the road at 7:30 p.m. against Flower Mound Marcus while East hosts Allen at the same time.
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