By TIM TAYLORTioga County Sports Report
WATKINS GLEN — Jakobe Foster sank a long jump shot at the buzzer to lift Candor to a 38-36 victory over Newfield in the first round of the Watkins Glen Holiday Tournament Friday evening, however, it was a stellar defensive play by Jason Jantz that set the stage for the thrilling heroic moment.
With the score deadlocked at 36 and the clock being a factor, the Coyotes missed a shot and the Trojans’ Malcolm Jenkins came down with the rebound. He immediately swung around and raced toward the other end of the gym and what appeared to be an open lane to the hoop. Jantz was able to run him down and knock the ball loose with Jenkins touching it before it bounded over the end line with 4.8 seconds left on the clock.
Not looking for overtime, Foster raced down the far side of the court, cutting back just inside the 3-point line and launching the game-winning shot.
“Everybody sees Jakobe make that two, but the play before that, Jason Jantz basically ran 70 feet down the floor and tipped the ball out of the kid's hands,” Candor coach Nate Thomas said. “Nobody's talking about that, but our guys, our guys know about that. That's something that Jason has done all year.
“Between Jacek (Teribury) and Jason, they did a fantastic job defending Jenney because he's such a good player. That gave us the chance to be in it at the end.”
Newfield’s only lead of the evening came on the game’s first basket, but the Trojans never went away, rallying from an 11-point second quarter deficit to tie the score with 1:26 left in the final frame.
After the Trojans scored on their first possession, Foster and Jadon Heidl spearheaded an early surge for an 8-2 advantage, the duo wrapping 3-pointers around a short Heidl jumper that rolled around the rim before slipping through.
Newfield retaliated with a free throw from Carter Aidun and a trey by Greg Taylor to make it 8-6, but a rebound and putback by Ryan Huizinga and a free throw from Foster gave the Coyotes an 11-6 lead heading into the second period.
The Trojans trimmed the lead to 11-10 in the first two minutes of Q2, then Foster drained a three-ball, Heidl scored off a turnover, then Foster knocked down another trey and a layup to give Candor a 21-10 cushion.
A bucket from Jenkins and a free throw by Aidun made it 21-13 at the break.
Knowing they had to slow Foster down while remaining aware of the fact that a relatively quiet Jadon Heidl could explode at any time, the Trojans stepped up their defensive pressure in the second half, holding the Coyotes to six Foster points.
“They did,” Thomas said. “We knew it was coming, right. We threw the first punch of the game, and at halftime we talked about the fact that they were going to come out and punch us in the face, and we knew it was coming.
“Hats off to our guys for holding their composure when they hit back. We did a great job of just running through our offensive sets, killing some time, burning the clock.”
Meanwhile, five different Trojans put points on the board in Q3. They cut the lead to six on four occasions, then made it 27-24 on a Sawyer Emery three-ball with 1.2 seconds left in the period.
Huizinga started the scoring in the final stanza and Foster added a free throw, but baskets by Aidun and Jenney kept Newfield within two at 30-28.
Taylor missed a game-tying jumper near the five-minute mark, then Carson Heidl put back his own miss at 4:40 for a 32-28 lead.
Jenkins scored 20 seconds later to cut the gap to 32-20, but Jaeck Teribury found Huizinga open in the paint to make it 34-30 with 3:53 remaining.
Fifteen seconds later, Jenkins hit a pair of free throws and it was a two-point game again.
A Jadon Heidl layup made the score 36-32 at 2:45, but Anthony Ellison countered with a basket eight seconds later and Jenney's free throws at 1:26 knotted things up.
Ellison had a chance to put the Trojans on top with a reverse layup with 40 seconds left, but missed and Huizinga pulled down the rebound.
Candor wasn’t able to take advantage of that turnover, however, but certainly made the most out of the next one.
The Coyotes defensive play was clearly a key factor in this victory.
“They can score and they're physical inside, so they got some easy buckets and we knew it was coming,” Thomas said. “It's no secret they have five guys on the court at any time that could score the basketball, so we had to play good team defense.
“We knew if they chipped away and chipped away, and we still had the lead, then we just keep playing. They tied it up at the end there and our guys didn't panic. They came to the bench. They had that look in their eye like, we're ready to go. What do you got? And they finished.”
Newfield might have had an opportunity to pick up the “W” with better free throw shooting, hitting just half of its 20 attempts. Jenkins went 4-for-4 at the stripe and finished with a team-high 10 points.
Candor attempted just six charity throws, all by Foster, who made four.
Foster led all scorers with 21 points and added six rebounds and a steal. Jadon Heidl contributed nine points, two steals and assist and a rebound; and Huizinga added six points, five boards and a block.
Carson Heidl recorded two points and grabbed eight boards; Teribury dished out three assists; Jantz had two boards, a block and a steal; and Donald Makie had one assist, one steal and one rebound.
The Coyotes (7-1) will face Trumansburg (6-1) at approximately 6 p.m. Saturday for the championship.
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IN PHOTO 1: Candor’s Jakobe Foster launches the game-winning shot over Newfield’s Malcolm Jenkins. ... PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
