Myers’ shot caps comeback for Char-Houston
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Eugene Briggs spent the past 10 years as the boys basketball coach at Chartiers-Houston. He was recently hired for the same position at Fort Cherry. It will be his second stint as the Rangers’ head coach.
Chartiers-Houston’s Cam Hanley goes drives to the basket while Fort Cherry’s Devon Brown tries to block the shot during Tuesday night’game at Chartiers Houston High School.
HOUSTON – For the majority of Tuesday night, Chartiers-Houston guard AJ Myers was looking into the eyes of a former teammate.
When Myers dribbled, he was there. When Myers tried to find openings on offense, he made sure to be in his hip pocket. When Myers drove the hoop, Fort Cherry’s Ryhan Culberson was predominantly tasked with contesting almost every shot his AAU teammate took.
As Chartiers-Houston called a timeout after the Bucs pulled down a rebound with 12 seconds left with a tied score, 56-56, C-H had a chance to take the lead in a pivotal section game.
Following a Spencer Terling half-court inbound pass, and a Rangers defender slipping, Myers pulled up four feet behind the three-point line to rattle home the game-winning shot with four seconds left, giving C-H a 59-56 win over Fort Cherry in a battle for first place in Section 2-AA.
“My only thought was we are going to win,” Myers said about the late timeout. “I wanted the ball for the last-second shot.”
Myers’ shot completed a 10-0 run for the Bucs in the final 1:54. It also gives C-H (10-3, 5-0) an outright lead in the section.
Fort Cherry used its size early to forge ahead with a 9-3 run to start the game and Nick Rogers hit a deep three-pointer to extend the Rangers lead to 21-9 at the end of the first quarter.
That lead would quickly be diminished in the second quarter as Myers doubled the points of the entire Fort Cherry team, outscoring it 12-6, to cut the halftime deficit to 29-25.
“We’re used to a rough first-quarter start,” C-H coach Eugene Briggs said about being outmuscled by the significantly bigger Fort Cherry team in the first eight minutes.
“We still don’t know why it happens. When you play a good ballclub like that and fall behind, you really have to just keep pecking away. You have to find a way to turn it (the size differential) and make it an advantage. We can’t post up against someone like that so you have to take the ball right at them.”
Making sure to not settle for outside shots, C-H turned to guard Cam Hanley and Myers to focus on driving the basket against the athletic post players of Fort Cherry (10-4, 5-1).
It was a strategy that allowed the Bucs to trim the Fort Cherry lead to 43-41, going into the fourth quarter, along with putting 6-7 forward Devon Brown in foul trouble.
“We prepared the last three days for what they do and executed everything that we worked on,” said Fort Cherry head coach Dwayne Canton. “We wanted to put Ryhan on Myers from the start until we got into foul trouble. It came down to the last couple of seconds and they hit a shot to end the game. The kid is good. He can pull up from everywhere. I wasn’t expecting him to hit that last shot but that’s the way basketball goes.”
Fort Cherry uses its size advantage to score many second-chance opportunities after collecting offensive rebounds.
Leading the post presence were Brown and Culberson, who each scored 14 points. Nick Rogers also reached double figures with 11 points.
The patient offensive strategy implemented by Briggs was paced solely by Hanley and Myers, who combined for 21 of the Bucs’ 23 field goals. Hanley scored a game-high 27 points, while Myers finished with 26.
“You don’t see that matchup around here often,” Briggs said about Culberson and Myers. “You have two guys that are really top-notch talent. It’s fun to watch. For us older people that section championship banner means something. For the people that come here and support us it’s important. We still have a long way to go. These games are going to be much tougher the second time around.”