First win remains elusive as Charles City drops close contest at West Point

Charles City's Ray Crump (right) battles with West Point's Marshall Gill for a possession off a missed shot.

Andre' Jones photo

In a battle of teams searching for win number one on the season, Charles City had several opportunities to snap a losing skid dating back to January 23, 2015. But the visiting Panthers squandered several chances down the stretch against the host West Point Pointers.

West Point orchestrated just enough offense to outlast Charles City 44-40 in Friday night’s matchup, sending the host Pointers to their first win and extending Charles City’s drought to 43 consecutive losses.

Both teams engaged in a back-and-forth contest for one and a half quarters before West Point garnered some breathing room on the scoreboard. Back-to-back threes by Sam Irungu and Aaron Simmons bestowed a 20-14 lead for the Pointers, part of a 10-2 run to close the half with the host leading Charles City 24-16.

Second half started with a flourish for the Panthers. Freshman guard Justis Crawley drained a corner three out of the break and followed it up with a fadeaway jumper to cut the deficit to three (24-21). After another score by Irungu, Crawley drained another trifecta to put the Panthers down by a mere bucket (26-24).

After a Nyseim Shaw putback and free throws by Marshall Gill returned the lead to six, senior Ray Crump connected with a three-pointer of his own, placing the Panthers in prime position trailing by three as they transitioned into the final quarter (32-29).

The Pointers regrouped from the visitors’ rally, with Derek Healy and Ethan Hatcher dropping baskets from beyond the three-point arc to return an eight-point lead to the home team (38-30). West Point maintained that lead up until the 2:52 mark when Crump struck again from distance to cut the lead to five. That margin shrunk even more when Panther senior Kyle Jones converted a lay-in to bring it down to three points once again (40-37).

Healy’s free throws bumped the lead back up to five for the hosts, but Crump slithered through the lane to drop a floater to cut the lead to 42-39 with 1:11 remaining on the clock.

With the Pointers in the bonus situation, Charles City fouled Healy, resulting in the forward missing the front end of two one-and-one attempts from the charity stripe. The second clank led to Crump being fouled with 14.9 on the clock. The senior guard drained one from the line to cut the lead to two (42-40).

But Healy would make amends for his early clanks. Fouled with 9.9 on the clock, he drained both free throws to extend the lead for the Pointers (44-40). Crawley followed up a teammate’s errant shot with a lay-in with one tick remaining on the clock and Charles City burning a timeout to prevent any further time from dwindling. On the inbounds play, however, Healy eluded a Panther trap and was fouled with 0.2 showing on the game clock. He sank the first free throw before intentionally missing the second one to have the clock expire.

After the game, Panther head coach Wayne Keys talked about the points that kept Charles City from finding the win column.

“We played well in the third quarter, but down the stretch we simply didn’t execute,” said the disappointed head coach, who saw his team fall to 0-9 on the season. “We missed too many foul shots, we had too many turnovers, and we got tired.

“Tonight, you can tell we didn’t have a lot of experience on the floor when it comes to this type of situation,” Keys continued. “We made mistakes and just didn’t play smart.”

Crump and Crawley finished in double figures, scoring 13 and 10, respectively. Kyle Jones contributed nine, Devante Johnson tossed in five, Davon Johnson added three, and Charles Brown chipped in with two.

Healy’s 11 points led West Point in scoring.