Jason Hewlett helps Youngstown Chaney outlast Alliance in overtime in OHSAA district semi
BOARDMAN — Third-seeded Alliance and fourth-seeded Youngstown Chaney treated fans to a classic Division II district boys’ basketball district semifinal at Boardman High School on Thursday night.
It was so good, in fact, it took an overtime session to decide it.
When the final horn sounded, it was Chaney emerging with a hard-earned 84-76 win over the Aviators.
“I’m still proud of my guys,” said Alliance head coach Sean Weatherspoon. “We worked hard all year and we deserved to be in this position. I challenged my guys to see if we had it in us and we definitely did.”
“It was really was (a great tournament game),” said Chaney head coach Marlon McGaughy. “Two really good teams that match up well and wondering who was going to make the last shot.”
Chaney (16-9), which has won three consecutive district titles, will play for a fourth Saturday at 4 p.m. at Boardman against No. 2-seeded Canfield, which advanced with a 66-57 win over NDCL on Tuesday.
Alliance, which enjoyed an outstanding season, including repeating as Eastern Buckeye Conference champion, bows out with a 15-9 record.
Leading Alliance was 6-foot-4 junior K’Vaughn Davis, who had 23 points, including four of the Aviators’ seven treys in the game. That included an incredible desperation triple that swished the nets as time expired in regulation to send the game to overtime.
Alliance displayed excellent offensive balance as talented freshman point guard J.R. Jackson added 21 points and 6-7 senior center Diego Allen finished with 17 points.
The Aviators were minus sharpshooting junior Brendan Zurbrugg, who was unable to play Thursday due to sickness.
“Missing Zurbrugg was big,” said Weatherspoon. “He was out sick so we were a man down. We definitely missed him.”
The Cowboys were led by 6-4 senior star Jason Hewlett, who scored 32 points, including three slam dunks. Teammates Josiah Gonzalez and Matt Jones added 20 and 13 points, respectively, for the Cowboys.
“I don’t single out players, we talk about team all the time,” said McGaughy. “We have a tough schedule every year to make us win tough games like this. You’ve got to have a tough schedule, we might not be 23-2 or whatever, but we’re going to always be in it.”
Early on, it looked like Chaney would run away with things as the Cowboys went out to a 22-9 lead after one quarter.
“We got beat in the hustle plays, the 50-50 balls and a lot of offensive rebounds,” said Weatherspoon.
But Alliance ramped up its defensive pressure in the second quarter, pulling within nine points (36-27) at halftime. The trend continued in the third quarter. Alliance took its first lead of the night at 42-40 when Marquavian McClendon swished two free throws with 3:11 left in the third. Chaney came back to tie things at 47-47 after three.
“We knew coming in that Chaney was going to play hard as heck, especially on the offensive glass and I thought we weathered that storm in the first quarter and we had a chance to extend our lead (in the fourth quarter) and we took a couple quicks shots,” remarked Weatherspoon.
The Aviators took their largest lead of the game at five points (56-51) with 5:08 left in regulation but Chaney answered with a 14-9 run and held a 68-65 lead with 5.5 seconds left. With Alliance in possession of the ball, the Aviators scrambled down the court and K’Vaughn Davis launched a deep 3 from the left wing as he passed the midcourt stripe that swished the nets at the buzzer, sending the game to overtime.
“When he (Davis) made that (3-pointer) from half court I thought, Oh my gosh, it’s going to be a long night,” said McGaughy.
In the extra session, the game was tied at 72-72 following a short hoop by Allen with 2:03 showing but the Cowboys used a 12-4 run to advance.
“I thought we got stagnant on offense and I told them we’ve got to run in overtime) because that’s what we’ve been doing all year,” observed the Chaney head coach. “We don’t get tired because that is what we’ve done all year and it worked out for us.”
McGaughy was so impressed with Alliance he wants to play the Aviators in the regular season and plans to see if it can be arranged.
“They (the Aviators) are so well coached and I want to reach out to the coach because I want to play them every year if we can,” said the Chaney coach, who feels it would benefit both teams.
With many of his starters returning next season, Weatherspoon knows the future is bright for the Aviators.
“This should be a motivational tool of where we can go (in the future),” said the Alliance head coach. “We fell short of our goal, but we’ll go back to work with the team in the gym and get back here and hopefully next year definitely go further.”
This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Youngstown Chaney beats Alliance in OHSAA boys basketball district
