Feb 9, 2018 4 min read

HOUSTON — With a section title already in hand for Chartiers-Houston, the final few days of the regular season can prove as a valuable preparation for the playoffs.

With the recent history of the Chartiers-Houston and Fort Cherry boys basketball teams, the Section 2-AA finale between the two teams was never going to be limited to only preparation.

Only shooting 26 percent from the floor through three quarters, Chartiers-Houston finally found a rhythm on both sides of the ball in the fourth quarter to defeat Fort Cherry, 50-47.

The Bucs forced Fort Cherry into 10 turnovers and turned a majority into easy layups as they outscored the Rangers 17-7 in the fourth quarter.

“That’s been us all season,” said C-H head coach Eugene Briggs. “We haven’t put four quarters together in any game. We only played one quarter tonight, but we were pretty good when we had to be.”

As improbable of a win as it appeared after three quarters when C-H (11-1, 16-5) trailed 40-33, making just 12 of 46 of its on the night. The Bucs then opened the fourth quarter on a 12-1 run to take a 45-43 lead.

Senior Cam Hanley, who scored eight of his game-high 22 points in the run, willed the Bucs to victory with his effort.

“The atmosphere was great,” said Hanley. “Our crowd definitely helped us tonight. I was really proud of our effort. We played hard and never gave up. I give credit to my teammates. We stuck to our plan and played good defense. I knew once we could start forcing turnovers we would get going offensively.”

Fort Cherry (7-5, 9-12) took a 46-45 lead on a pair of free throws from Brenden Anderson with under two minutes to play, but a layup from Zach Southern put C-H back on top, 47-46.

Fort Cherry’s Zachary Vincenti made a free throw with 23 seconds remaining to pull the Rangers within one point, 48-47.

Vincenti led Fort Cherry in scoring on the night with 13 points.

Free throws were a problem for the Rangers all night as they made just 12 of 24 attempts on the night.

“Turnovers hurt us in the fourth quarter,” Fort Cherry head coach Dwayne Canton said. “Although if we make free throws, especially late in the game, the outcome is probably different.”

The Rangers had another chance to take the lead after a jump ball gave them possession with 18.9 seconds remaining, but threw the inbounds pass away.

C-H’s Andrew Clark knocked down a pair of free throws to seal the deal. Clark finished with 11 points on the night.

Fort Cherry had one more shot to tie, but a desperation three-point attempt was off the mark.

“I was extremely proud of the effort,” Canton said. “We’ve been preaching for that effort. If we had that effort the past two games, we blow Western Beaver and Jefferson-Morgan out. I tell them all the time that if you give me 120 percent on the court, win or lose, we walk out with our heads held high. We did that tonight.”

Neither team shot the ball particularly well early on with C-H making just 9 of 31 first-half attempts and the Rangers connecting on just 10 of 28. Hanley and Noah Minney turned Fort Cherry turnovers into layups as the Bucs went on a 9-2 second-quarter run to take a 22-20 advantage.

But on the back on Nate Higham, who scored all 12 of his points in the first half, the Rangers outscored C-H 9-2 to close the half and take a 29-24 lead into the locker room.

Higham knocked down a pair of three-pointers in the run, scoring eight points in the spurt.

“I took a page out of Eugene’s book and we played a diamond-and-one,” said Canton. “We tried to take Clark out of the game. If Hanley, Clark and Southern all got going it would probably be a long night. We were able to execute that for three quarters.”

Chartiers-Houston kept the Rangers from extending their lead to double digits early in the third quarter, limiting the damage and allowing time for its late comeback.

“We just didn’t get many shots in rhythm for three quarters,” Briggs said. “They sagged off us and everything was hesitant on our end. You can’t play like that. Give Fort Cherry credit. They played a great game. The good news is we have stepped up at the right time all season.”