Titans falter in second half, fall to Panthers

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 12/22/15

By JACOB MARROCCO

Sports Reporter

After a torrid run to cut its deficit to 1 late in the first half, the Toll Gate boys’ basketball team was outscored 36-17 en route to its first Division III …

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Titans falter in second half, fall to Panthers

Posted

By JACOB MARROCCO

Sports Reporter

After a torrid run to cut its deficit to 1 late in the first half, the Toll Gate boys’ basketball team was outscored 36-17 en route to its first Division III loss of the season at Johnston, 61-41.

Aidan Estrella led the Titans with eight, but Johnston’s Ryan Yankee led three Panthers in double figures with 21 points.

“We’ve got a couple of guys who can hit the outside shot, like Ryan Yankee, and he kind of bails us out in the halfcourt offense,” Johnston head coach Steve DeMeo said. “He’s cool. When things are going good or bad, he’s exactly the same. He’s on an even keel. He doesn’t get too high, he doesn’t get too low.”

The Panthers (2-0) led from the start and, though the Titans got close, they were never able to jump out in front. A Yankee 3-pointer and two buckets from Nassir Vasquez had Johnston on top 7-0 right out of the gate.

Johnston extended its lead to 20-6 behind Toll Gate’s cold shooting and turnovers. Toll Gate was able to close the gap to 13-6, but Stephen Cotoia followed that up with a layup to bring the lead back out to nine. Yankee drained five consecutive points to bring the lead out to 14.

Then, the Titans started to get in rhythm. Estrella nailed a 3-pointer and Adam Donnelly followed suit with a bucket of his own to make it 20-13. Vasquez scored again in response and Robert Russo got a 3-pointer to go to put the Panthers back up 12, but the Titans came back with an 11-0 run.

Ryan Viti got it started with his only points of the day before Austin Giard got his first shot to go in from beyond the arc, making it 25-16. He finished off his five first-half points on the next drive up the court to bring the Titans within seven.

“For that span, we just gave up on the defensive end,” DeMeo said. “We got the lead off our defense. Steal, break, we like to run. We’re not really a solid halfcourt offense. We need to rebound and steal and push the ball up the court. Whatever was transpiring, we allowed them to shoot all the perimeter shots and they weren’t missing.”

Josh Coleman notched his only score on the afternoon for the Titans late in the first half, but it was a big one. He drained a 3-point attempt to cut the deficit to four before Austin Ouimette’s shot closed the gap to two.

Toll Gate’s Joel Johnson hit the front end of a pair of free throws to make it 25-24, but that’s the closest the Titans would get. Johnson went scoreless from the field on Saturday, with just two points from the charity stripe and four fouls to go with a handful of turnovers.

“[He has to] attack the basket and relax with some of the dribbling,” Toll Gate head coach Tom Rayko said of Johnson.

From there, it was all Johnston.

The Panthers went on a 7-0 run to take a 32-24 lead into the break. Yankee capped the scoring burst with a 3-pointer the dwindling seconds. He had 13 in the first half.

The momentum carried into the second half with the Panthers outscoring the Titans 29-17 following the intermission. It was Yankee again who converted an important shot, putting one in from beyond the arc in the opening seconds to balloon Johnston’s lead out to 11.

“Just shot selection,” Rayko said of the second half struggles. “Simple as that.”

The Titans (1-1) went scoreless in the first four minutes of the second half, with Donnelly’s jumper ending the snide to get Toll Gate within 10, 36-26. Toll Gate would not get past a double-digit deficit, though, as the Panthers kept the Titans at bay while extending their lead.

“At halftime, we told them, we played a real good half, but we should be up a lot more than we’re up,” DeMeo said. “We got 16 guys and they all can play. They’re interchangeable.”

Eight different Panthers got on the score sheet in the second half, with Yankee’s eight leading the way. Cotoia had six points of his own while Russo and point guard Jacob Coro put in shots from 3-point land. The Panthers’ stingy defense forced difficult attempts and turnovers out of Toll Gate while Johnston often converted on the other end.

“Better shot selection and the defense,” DeMeo cited as reasons for pulling away in the second half. “We deflect a lot of passes. Even if they go back to the other team’s hands, we deflect a lot of passes. We work on that because like I said everything we try to do is based on our defense, not our offense. The tough part is to get 16-, 17-, 18-year-old guys to play defense and don’t worry about the offense.”

Coro was all over the court for Johnston, forcing turnovers and facilitating shots while giving the ball up rarely.

The Panthers were out in front by as many as 23 late in the game, after Nicholas Mollicone sunk a pair of free throws.

The Titans went on the road once again to face off against Paul Cuffee (0-1) on Monday night, but results were not available at press time. The Navigators opened up their D-III schedule with a 64-60 loss to Masters on Thursday.

“Same thing, back in the gym for practice,” Rayko succinctly said of how the Titans will get ready for their next matchup.

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