Saints rattle the cage but Pirates pull out victory
TCC’s Hunter Sabin gets double-teams by Garaway’s Jenson Garber, left, and Logan Yoder during the second half of the Pirates 60-52 victory on Tuesday, Feb. 1 in Sugarcreek.
For three quarters the Tuscarawas Central Catholic Saints scrapped and clawed and hung around the Garaway Pirates in their Feb. 1 game in Sugarcreek, even without their high-powered offensive threat Zander Sabin.
Then Drew Mullet happened, and the Pirates scored seven quick points to begin the final quarter to pull out a 60-52 win.
“In a couple of our losses, we’ve seen a couple mental mistakes take place in close games where it kind of snowballed on us,” Garaway coach Terry Rowe said. “It was good to see us take charge late in a big situation tonight and execute well. Our defense clamped down. We spread the floor and made some good decisions and knocked down some big shots.”
Saints head coach Mickey Sabin was forced to play without his star player in his son Zander Sabin, who tweaked his knee in the game prior versus West Branch, a game his team lost by just two points.
“We take 24 points a game and a lot of assists out with Zander out of the game, but I was really proud of how our kids responded tonight,” Sabin said of his team.
TCC led 14-12 at the end of one, and TCC’s Jordan Cherry and Brady Roden went at it in the second, scoring six and seven points, respectively, and both teams went to the locker room tied at 28.
Adam Decaminada hit a trey to start the third for TCC, but Brady Roden scored an and-one, then took a perfect feed from brother Alex Roden for a score, allowing the Pirates to take a 37-34 lead. Back came the Saints, who got two free throws from Kayden Crosier and a score from Decaminada just seconds before the end of the third-quarter buzzer, and the two teams were locked up again, this time at 41.
“We were right where we wanted to be,” coach Sabin said. “They hit some big, tough shots and put us in a hole, and we kind of ran out of gas. We couldn’t score for a while there.”
Rowe knew every possession was critical from there out and wanted to start the final quarter strong, so he drew up a play for Mullet to start the fourth period. Mullet, who hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter but was largely quiet in the middle frames, spun and nailed a triple to get things started. TCC failed to score, and Mullet faked a trey and drove for two for a 46-41 lead. After getting another stop, Alex Roden scored inside, forcing a Saints timeout.
“We had a couple of quick-hitters during that stretch that we executed very well,” Rowe said. “That’s something we’ve done pretty effectively.”
After Jacob Renicker hit a free throw, Mullet tossed in a dagger from deep, giving the Pirates a 51-42 advantage. Another stop led to a sweet Pirates possession that saw Jarret Wallick drive and dish a perfect assist to Brady Roden, and the 55-45 Pirates lead was never challenged thereafter.
Decaminada and Hunter Sabin would throw in 3-pointers late, but by then Garaway had things well in hand.
Sabin designed a very difficult nonleague schedule for the Saints this season, and while his team dropped to 9-9 and is 8-4 in the Inter-Valley Conference North division, he doesn’t mind the mediocre record because he sees what he has in this team.
“Our AD actually asked me if I wanted to schedule some of the games we had this year, and I am OK with facing that type of competition,” Sabin said. “It’s only going to make us better, and if we are an eight or nine seed going into the tournament, that’s OK because we know we can compete, and we will be ready. We are trending in the right direction, and the way everyone stepped up tonight without Zander was really exciting to see.”
Coming off a stunning loss to Claymont in the game prior to this one, Rowe said it was important for his team to come back strong and play well against a strong opponent.
“That was big for us to put that game behind us, come back and play well tonight, and we did that,” Rowe said.
Mullet led Garaway (14-4) with 16 points, Brady Roden scored 14 and added 11 rebounds, Yoder and Alex Roden each scored eight, and Garber added six. Decaminada completed a strong performance with a game-high 19 points, Cherry scored 13, and Crosier and Renicker each added six.