By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
Following a Silver Lake score that gave the Eagles a 50-49 lead, Rossville senior Jakoby McDonnell drove the length of the floor and dropped a driving jumper at the buzzer for a thrilling 51-50 finish in a rivalry known for thrilling finishes.
Senior Jakoby McDonnell (0) scored the game-winning basket at the buzzer Tuesday night, giving Rossville a 51-50 win over rival Silver Lake. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]]
Rossville has seen Silver Lake senior Dayne Johnson hit so many big buckets over the years, it could have wilted when Johnson scored and was fouled with 8.7 seconds remaining. Johnson’s basket tied the game at 49-49. His free throw could have been the final nail in the Rossville coffin.
The play Rossville coach Brandon McDonnell drew up faltered, so his son Jakoby was forced to improvise.
“We were supposed to run a play that we added in for times like that, but I guess we were a little antsy. We weren’t ready,” Jakoby McDonnell said. “So, at that point, with just (a few) seconds left, you just got to go down the court and get to the basket, either make it or get fouled. I knew once I saw a little bit of space I was going to get downhill and try to get fouled or get the basket.”
McDonnell slipped through the right side of the Silver Lake defense and bounced off the chest of a defender as his shot went off the glass and in at the final horn.
“That play broke down from what I called,” Brandon McDonnell said, explaining that not all the Rossville players heard the play call. “And I’ve always told the boys ‘I have full confidence in you. If it breaks down, you have to turn into a basketball player quickly.' Jakoby got downhill, he saw an opening, went into (the defender), finished hard and finished strong.”
Rossville, ranked ninth in Class 2A, avenged a disappointing December loss at Silver Lake. The Bulldawgs improved to 13-6, 7-4 in the Big East League. Coach McDonnell praised the rivalry with Silver Lake.
“That’s what you’ve got to love about playing Silver Lake as a whole,” the Rossville coach said. “It brings good energy. You want good basketball like that, and that’s what came out tonight.”
“This was a very big win for us seniors,” Jakoby McDonnell added. “We didn’t want to go out our last time playing them on a loss, especially with Senior Night and the whole town being here. It was just great for the Rossville community.”
Johnson has been a thorn in the Bulldawgs’ side for years. He finished with 20 points, but Rossville utilized a special defense to try to keep Johnson from taking over the game. Brandon McDonnell called the defense “amoeba,” which he described as a zone with a lot of shifting and checkoffs and which put the Bulldawgs in good position to rebound.
Senior Jack Donovan scored 12 points to tie for team-high honors in Rossville's 51-50 win over rival Silver Lake. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Both teams’ defensive strategies slowed the pace and stifled the other team’s number one scorer – Johnson for Silver Lake and Jack Donovan for Rossville. Coming off a 40-point outburst last Friday, Donovan was held to 12 points.
“To be honest, I was so engaged in the game that when the buzzer went off in the second quarter, I thought it was the end of the first quarter,” Brandon McDonnell said. “The score was 18 to 19. I’m looking at the score saying ‘Ok, let’s go for the second quarter.’
“That’s the way it was on both ends. They put us in a little press to slow us down because we like to get up and down the court. And for us, we knew that, hey, Dayne is very good. We can’t do much with him when we’re doing a man-on-man action. So, we have to throw a little amoeba at them, try to make him pass the ball as much as possible.”
Senior Dayne Johnson scored a game-high 20 points in Silver Lake's 51-50 loss to Rossville. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The strategy worked, barely. Johnson finished with 20 points, but on 8-20 shooting. The Eagles relied on some big three-point shots to stay in the game. Camden Kruger and Joel Miller each dropped three three-pointers. All three of Miller’s triples came in a three-minute stretch late in the fourth period.
The loss was Silver Lake’s first in Big East play. The Eagles dropped to 15-5, 9-1 in the league.
ROSSVILLE BOYS 51, SILVER LAKE 50
Silver Lake 9 9 16 16 -- 50
Rossville 15 4 15 17 -- 51
Silver Lake (15-5, 9-1) – Kruger 3-9 0-0 9, Johnson 8-20 4-4 20, Rooks 1-6 0-0 3, Bergman 1-5 0-0 2, Miller 3-8 0-0 9, Womack 1-3 0-0 2, Kraus 2-6 0-0 5, VanVactor 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-57 4-4 50.
Rossville (13-6, 7-4) – McDonnell 6-13 0-0 12, Donovan 5-11 2-2 12, Bush 1-2 0-0 2, Miller 4-6 0-0 10, Johnson 3-4 1-2 7, Horgan 2-3 0-0 6, Lewis 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 22-40 3-4 51.
3-point goals – Silver Lake 8 (Kruger 3, Miller 3, Rooks 1, Kraus 1), Rossville 4 (Miller 2, Horgan 2). Total fouls – Silver Lake 8, Rossville 7. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.
