Leading by nine points entering the fourth quarter, the Maricopa High School boys’ basketball team was unable to close the door and fell to Chandler Seton Catholic, 49-48, Thursday night at the MHS gym.
“We needed that game, we just needed it,” head coach Andy Branchik said of the loss to a team his squad had beaten in a close game just two weeks ago in the final game of the ‘Copa Hoops Holiday Classic, 64-61.
Maricopa has lost four straight since that contest to fall to 8-11.
For most of the game the Rams appeared headed for the win.
They jumped to a 16-8 lead in the first quarter as Marcus Lowe led the way with seven points. They even battled back in the second quarter after the Sentinels tied the game twice, to hold a 26-23 margin at halftime.
Maricopa’s chances looked even brighter after an 11-2 run to start the third period pushed the lead to a game-high 12 points, 37-25 with fewer than two minutes remaining in the quarter.
SCHS grabbed the momentum at the start of the final eight minutes with a 10-3 streak that cut its deficit to just two, 42-40, with 3:42 to play.
Even then, Maricopa responded nicely. Lowe hit a 3-pointer with 3:07 left and Vernon Daniels added a free throw at the 2:44 mark, and the Rams again had a six-point lead, 46-42.
Then the mistakes began to pile up for MHS.
After the Sentinels’ Adam Engelbert made a layup after a steal, another Ram turnover led to a 3-pointer by Sam Engelbert, his fourth of the game. Suddenly, Maricopa found itself reeling with just a one-point margin and 1:0 to play.
The lead disappeared entirely when David Gesicki scored on a layup with 40 seconds to go and then Keegan Abele converted after another MHS turnover to put Seton on top, 49-46 with only 17 seconds remaining.
Lowe trimmed the margin to one with a jumper at the six-second mark, but the Rams were unable to catch up to the ball in the final seconds.“I told them in the huddle ‘You need to learn from this. If you’re going to improve you need to learn from these games,’” Branchik said.
On his team’s play earlier in the game, Branchik said, “I was happy with them. We had some breakdowns, but even until things went awry at the end, they didn’t force bad shots. They were running the offense.”
As has been the case often this season, free-throw shooting helped doomed the Rams. They hit just three of 11 attempts.
Lowe paced MHS with 19 points, while DeVaughn Elledge and Stephen Kogutkiewicz added eight each. Sam Engelbert led Seton Catholic with 18.
The Rams get back into action right away, hosting Santa Cruz Valley, a team they defeated on the road earlier in the year 69-40, Friday at 7 p.m.
