AUBURN - When is a goat, on second thought, not a goat at all?
Auburn guard Andy Krystofik goes up for a shot against Corcoran center Robby Marshall in the second quarter of the Maroons' nailbitting loss to the Cougars 66-65 Friday night at Auburn High School. Reid Silverman / The Citizen
How can a team prove its worth in defeat?
The Auburn High boys basketball team learned answers to these questions Friday night, when they let a potential benchmark victory over Corcoran slip through their hands, and a crazy final flurry of action left them with a 66-65 loss.
Facing a long and athletic Cougars (6-2, 5-1 Colonial National) squad that boasts a front line of 6-foot-7 Daequan Montreal (18 points), 6-5 Robby Marshall (12) and 6-4 Elton Frazier (10), to go with long-range bomber Eddie Mitchell (15), the Maroons held serve for virtually the entire game.
Corcoran never trailed by more than seven points, yet never had a lead until Mitchell's pair of free throws made it 62-61 Cougars with 1:12 left to play.
Auburn point guard Andy Hoercher (17 points, five assists) answered with two foul shots of his own nine seconds later, giving the Maroons back the lead.
But Auburn (6-7, 3-6) needed another answer when Montreal hit an all-too-easy layup directly off an inbounds pass under the basket.
That came when A.J. Murphy rebounded a Dan Zambito miss and hit the putback with 31 seconds to play.
Murphy then potentially sealed the win at the other end, stripping Marshall of the ball and racing upcourt. But rather than let the clock run, the senior forward put up a jumpshot from the left corner, with two defenders on him.
One Cougar deflected the shot, and the ball was quickly zipped back into Marshall's hands for a left-handed layup, putting Corcoran back ahead, 66-65, with under 10 seconds to play.
With no timeouts remaining, Auburn had to settle for a hasty shot, and Zambito's jumper from the right corner sailed long. Greg Feocco's follow-up went through the net after the final buzzer.
"This game kind of showed us how we can play - with the best of the league, if we play hard," Hoercher said. "So we're happy with that aspect. It's hard, but we understand that it very easily could have been our game. So, we're pretty pleased."
Murphy, one of three Auburn starters with an enormous height disadvantage against his Corcoran counterpart, scored four of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, and also had three assists.
"We told A.J., 'If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have been there in the first place,'" said Maroons' coach Al Giannone. "For future reference, yeah, we told him, 'Let's pull that out, let them foul.' But he makes great decisions all the time. We win and lose as a team."
The Maroons had a 61-54 lead with 3:20 to play, after Zambito (15 points) nailed his fifth 3-pointer, then stole the ball and passed to Murphy, who dished to Hoercher for a three-point play and a big rise out of the crowd.
But Auburn center Dan Evans had just fouled out of the game with 3:54 to go, putting the Maroons at even further disadvantage in the rebounding department.
Eight of Corcoran's final 12 points came after offensive rebounds. Hoercher and Evans each had a paltry team high of three rebounds.
"That was a big time concern," Giannone said. "And I thought we did a nice job of keeping them off the offensive glass for most of the game, except in certain stretches, and (the final 3 1/2 minutes) was one of them."
With Auburn ahead or tied with Corcoran for all but 36 seconds of the game's 32 minutes, it might be difficult for the Maroons to shake off the disappointment of what might have been. But the ever-positive Giannone saw great hope out of Auburn's performance.
"Sometimes there will be one game that catapults you to greater things, and I really feel that tonight could be that game, even though we did lose," he said. "It's the first time in a long time we've played four quarters of hard nosed basketball defensively and smart offensively. I'm so proud of our kids. They played extremely hard tonight."
The Auburn High boys basketball team learned answers to these questions Friday night, when they let a potential benchmark victory over Corcoran slip through their hands, and a crazy final flurry of action left them with a 66-65 loss.
Facing a long and athletic Cougars (6-2, 5-1 Colonial National) squad that boasts a front line of 6-foot-7 Daequan Montreal (18 points), 6-5 Robby Marshall (12) and 6-4 Elton Frazier (10), to go with long-range bomber Eddie Mitchell (15), the Maroons held serve for virtually the entire game.
Corcoran never trailed by more than seven points, yet never had a lead until Mitchell's pair of free throws made it 62-61 Cougars with 1:12 left to play.
Auburn point guard Andy Hoercher (17 points, five assists) answered with two foul shots of his own nine seconds later, giving the Maroons back the lead.
But Auburn (6-7, 3-6) needed another answer when Montreal hit an all-too-easy layup directly off an inbounds pass under the basket.
That came when A.J. Murphy rebounded a Dan Zambito miss and hit the putback with 31 seconds to play.
Murphy then potentially sealed the win at the other end, stripping Marshall of the ball and racing upcourt. But rather than let the clock run, the senior forward put up a jumpshot from the left corner, with two defenders on him.
One Cougar deflected the shot, and the ball was quickly zipped back into Marshall's hands for a left-handed layup, putting Corcoran back ahead, 66-65, with under 10 seconds to play.
With no timeouts remaining, Auburn had to settle for a hasty shot, and Zambito's jumper from the right corner sailed long. Greg Feocco's follow-up went through the net after the final buzzer.
"This game kind of showed us how we can play - with the best of the league, if we play hard," Hoercher said. "So we're happy with that aspect. It's hard, but we understand that it very easily could have been our game. So, we're pretty pleased."
Murphy, one of three Auburn starters with an enormous height disadvantage against his Corcoran counterpart, scored four of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, and also had three assists.
"We told A.J., 'If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have been there in the first place,'" said Maroons' coach Al Giannone. "For future reference, yeah, we told him, 'Let's pull that out, let them foul.' But he makes great decisions all the time. We win and lose as a team."
The Maroons had a 61-54 lead with 3:20 to play, after Zambito (15 points) nailed his fifth 3-pointer, then stole the ball and passed to Murphy, who dished to Hoercher for a three-point play and a big rise out of the crowd.
But Auburn center Dan Evans had just fouled out of the game with 3:54 to go, putting the Maroons at even further disadvantage in the rebounding department.
Eight of Corcoran's final 12 points came after offensive rebounds. Hoercher and Evans each had a paltry team high of three rebounds.
"That was a big time concern," Giannone said. "And I thought we did a nice job of keeping them off the offensive glass for most of the game, except in certain stretches, and (the final 3 1/2 minutes) was one of them."
With Auburn ahead or tied with Corcoran for all but 36 seconds of the game's 32 minutes, it might be difficult for the Maroons to shake off the disappointment of what might have been. But the ever-positive Giannone saw great hope out of Auburn's performance.
"Sometimes there will be one game that catapults you to greater things, and I really feel that tonight could be that game, even though we did lose," he said. "It's the first time in a long time we've played four quarters of hard nosed basketball defensively and smart offensively. I'm so proud of our kids. They played extremely hard tonight."
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