Dec 27, 2018 5 min read

There aren’t many times when a you miss every single shot attempt and you end up impacting a game in a big way.

That is exactly what Canon-McMillan’s Elliott Waller did Thursday night.

Waller had a tough night from the floor, finishing with only four points – all from the free-throw line – but was the differencemaker for Canon-McMillan. Waller helped in plenty of other areas as the Big Macs held on to defeat Franklin Regional 45-41 in the opening round game of the Trinity Holiday Basketball Classic.

The Big Macs (5-3) will face Trinity in tonight’s championship game after the Hillers held on to defeat Albert Gallatin, 76-74, in the other first-round game.

Waller grabbed a team-high 15 rebounds and made a clutch steal and a pair of free throws with seconds remaining to seal the win for the Big Macs.

“I’m glad someone noticed that,” Canon-Mac coach Rick Bell said. “Elliott does so much and brings so many intangibles to this team. People often look at basketball and just see how many points you score, but he did so many other things tonight to help us win.”

Franklin Regional (6-2) erased an 11-point halftime deficit by outscoring C-M 17-4 in the third quarter to take a 33-31 lead.

Every time Canon-Mac tried to regain momentum, the Panthers’ Aiden Wiley would hit a big shot. Wiley led Franklin Regional with 15 points, connecting on five three-pointers, four in the second half.

A Wiley three gave FR a 38-36 lead, and after Luke Palma tied the game at 38 with a jumper, Thomas Samosky gave the Big Macs their first lead of the fourth quarter with his fourth three-pointer.

Wiley hit another three to tie it at 41 before Samosky gave C-M the lead for good, connecting on a runner to make it 43-41.

The Panthers had a chance to win or tie the game, inbounding the ball with less than eight seconds left, but Waller stole the inbounds pass and sank a pair of clutch free throws.

“On this team, it really doesn’t matter who scores the points,” Waller said. “My shot wasn’t falling so I knew I had to rebound well and play defense. It was a big team win.”

Led by Ethan Beachy’s 12 first-half points and Samosky’s nine, the Big Macs built a 27-16 first-half lead, making 7 of 14 attempts from behind the arc.

Samosky led all scorers with 16 points and Beachy had 15.

Franklin Regional came out in the second half more aggressive with a trap on defense and got easy baskets off of C-M turnovers. However, the experienced Big Macs were composed down the stretch and came away with an impressive win.

“I told the team at halftime that they were going to come at us hard and we had to withstand that,” Bell said. “We did a good job staying composed in the fourth quarter. We have had a very tough schedule and it will benefit us in the long run. We needed a game like this tonight.”

Trinity, 76-74

For one half, Trinity was outworked by Albert Gallatin as the Hillers were dominated on the glass, beaten to loose balls and were out of place defensively.

Then Michael Koroly made his presence felt.

Koroly scored 17 of his game-high 30 points in the third quarter as the Hillers erased a nine-point first-half deficit en route to a 76-74 victory.

“The biggest issue with us is we have to learn to play at the varsity level,” Trinity coach Tim Tessmer said. “We have some talent, but we are young and we make a lot of mistakes. We have to continue to learn and get better.”

Trinity’s offense was rushed in the first half as it settled for too many forced three-pointers. In the second half, the Hillers were able to penetrate and pass out to open shooters.

“That’s been us so far this year,” Tessmer said. “When we do things right, we get good looks and we can knock them down. Then we get in a rhythm and keep doing it. But when we don’t do things right, we just chuck up bad shots and then we keep doing that for stretches.”

Koroly carried the Hillers in the third quarter, making five three-point shots, including a 30-footer at the buzzer, to give Trinity (3-4) a 55-52 lead.

“Michael can make shots,” Tessmer said. “When he gets going, he can score a bunch like he did tonight. We needed every one of them.”

Despite Koroly’s heroics, it wasn’t easy for the Hillers. They saw a a 68-58 lead dwindle to two. Nate English’s fourth three-pointer cut the Trinity lead to 75-73 with 21 seconds left. Albert Gallatin (1-6) had one more chance to win or tie but Jake Hanchar blocked a three-point attempt to seal the Trinity win.

Noah Johnson scored 13 points for Trinity. Jordane Adams (12 points) and Hanchar (10) also were in double figures.

English led AG with 18 points. Dom Lewellen and Dylan Shea each had 15.