Boylan 71, Harlem 67
Now this seems a little more like Boylan basketball.
After losing five of its first 10 NIC-10 games, the powerhouse is returning to form. Boylan won its fifth straight NIC-10 game with a 71-67 decision against Harlem Saturday.
Harlem (15-9, 9-6 NIC-10) is the third straight team to fall to Boylan after beating the Titans in the first half of the season. Boylan also beat Auburn last week and Jefferson on Friday.
“I don’t think it’s that they’re doing anything different than they were before,” Harlem coach Mike Moore said. “They’re a very good team, and they’re very well coached. I think what you’re seeing now is the development and maturing of a young team.”
The Titans (16-9, 10-5) have won or shared 16 of the last 18 conference titles. But with three sophomores among the team’s top five scorers, the young Titans dropped as low as fifth place two weeks ago after its second loss of the season to conference champion Hononegah.
“We’re definitely playing better basketball now,” said Boylan junior Nick Bauch, who added that it was that loss to Hononegah that served as a sparkplug for the Titans. “We were in a funk all year, and now we’re gelling together. We just kind of said ‘This isn’t Boylan basketball,’ and started practicing really hard, and now we’re getting ready to make a playoff run.”
Bauch led the Titans in the paint against a tall Harlem team by scoring 14 points and grabbing seven rebounds. When Harlem missed what would have been a game-tying layup with five seconds remaining, Bauch grabbed the rebound, and a pair of free throws by Michael Morman sealed the win.
Boylan held Harlem’s leading scorers Chaz Winters and Bo Andrews to 11 and six points. The Huskies instead were led by Drazen Savic, who had 17 points and seven rebounds — including three putbacks.
“Aside from Savic, we didn’t play well offensively in the first half,” said Moore, who fell behind by as much as 13 in the second quarter and trailed 39-31 at halftime.
Harlem opened the second half with an 8-2 run and eventually took the lead (57-56) on a layup by Winters with 3:48 left in the game. A 3-pointer by Shane Zackery 20 seconds later put Boylan back ahead for good, though the Huskies threatened until the final seconds.
Zackery (15 points) and Chris Miller (12) also scored in double figures for Boylan, which plays Harlem again on March 2 in the opening game of the Guilford Regional.
With one conference game remaining at Freeport, the Titans could finish as high as second place in the conference if they beat the Pretzels and Auburn loses to Jefferson next week.
“I’m proud of our kids no matter where we finish,” Boylan coach Steve Goers said.
— Emily Tropp, rrstar.com.
