December 24, 1999

TC falls in final seconds

By Dave Feltner
Sports Editor

Based on the first 31 minutes and 44 seconds of basketball, the struggling play of Joe Babcanec far outweighed the good. Downright dwarfed it, in fact.

But Norwalk's point guard put on a 16-second show that had Columbian players grasping their heads in agony.

Babcanec had been 0-for-6 from the field with 16 seconds remaining, but before time expired he squeezed in two driving layups to vault the Truckers to a 49-48 victory.

"What a win," Trucker coach Ken Broz said. His team stays unbeaten in the Northern Ohio League (3-0) and stands 5-1 overall. "Outstanding clock management with under 50 seconds to go. We did a great job of fouling who we wanted to, and on offense we executed to the very last second."

In a game where baskets came at a premium, Columbian had seemingly taken control with two minutes left when Jason Gottfried got a driving layup to fall, and then converted at the foul line for a 46-41 advantage.

At that point, the Truckers had made just 11 shots from the field, and Tom King and Scott Woolsey were the only Norwalk players with field goals.

But on Norwalk's next trip down the floor, King got a soft jumper in the lane to fall. And after a Columbian turnover, Adam Robinson sank a pair of foul shots to bring the Truckers to within 46-45.

Columbian turned it over again, but King couldn't convert either shot off a subsequent foul, and TC sophomore Brian Eachus had a chance to seal the game at the stripe with 19 seconds left.

Eachus missed the first, and TC was whistled for a lane violation on the next to set up the first of Babcanec's drives with 16 seconds remaining.

When the Tornadoes couldn't get the following inbound pass in, the Truckers took over and Babcanec won it.

Columbian's Todd Focht had a desperation 25-footer bounce of the backboard, then the rim, and to the floor.

"Somehow this one got away from us," Columbian coach Matt Hutchinson said. "I don't know if we gave it away, but we didn't get it. I think we learned that this team has a lot of heart. A lot of guts. If we play with that type of passion for the last 15 games, we're going to have a lot of fun this year."

Momentum wavered between the teams through the first three quarters. Columbian had a quick 8-0 lead, and led at the first stop, 13-6, after holding the Truckers to a single field goal in the first quarter.

But Woolsey brought the Truckers back in the second when he hit four 3-pointers, including one at the halftime buzzer, for a 29-22 halftime lead.

The Truckers were again slow to start in the second half, hitting just two shots from the field in the third. Columbian's Chris Brooks pumped in six of his game-high 19 points in the quarter, and the Tornadoes had a 36-34 lead for the fourth quarter.

Brooks, who created shots for himself all game long, also collected nine rebounds.

No other Tornado scored in double figures, but Focht finished with eight, and Jason Gottfried contributed seven points and seven boards. David Price scored five points and had eight rebounds.

"Down the stretch we had a five-point lead, and that's a situation that we haven't been in a lot," Hutchinson said. "We wanted to run some time, and we wanted to be patient, but we didn't have aggressive patience. We were so worried about running down time that we forgot about scoring and we forgot about taking care of the ball."

Just four Truckers scored, but three of them were in double figures. King had 18 points and 11 boards, Woolsey scored 15 and Babcanec had 10.