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Chase Fain (14) put up a contested shot with less than a minute remaining against Lincoln County on Tuesday. His attempt was good and set up his game-winner just moments later. (Photo by Nancy Leedy / December 11, 2012) |
Chase Fain hit a jumper with four seconds to play to lift West Jessamine to a 64-62 win over host Lincoln County Tuesday night.
The Colts (5-2) took a 62-59 lead with 50.8 seconds left off a Fain bucket in the paint and a Robby Irgang free throw, only to have Lincoln tie it up with 22.1 ticks to go off a Luke Hill basket and a BJ Hoover free throw.
After a Lincoln timeout, West Jessamine took its time, holding the ball for the final shot. As the clock dropped under eight seconds, Fain moved to the left wing, glanced up at the clock, then cut inside where he hit what proved to be the winning shot. Fain finished with 18 points off 7-for-14 shooting and had six rebounds.
“Chase is a senior and he’s the guy that we want to have the ball in that situation because he’s a good shooter,” West Jessamine coach Damon Kelley said. “He can put the ball on the floor and finish, and he’s a good passer, too, if they double him. He made a nice play for us to win the game.”
Lincoln (1-5) had time after the Fain shot to attempt a potential tying or game-winning goal but could not get off a shot before the buzzer.
“We didn’t execute at the end,” Lincoln coach Jeff Jackson said. “When they scored, I should have called timeout but, too, we had something set to get the ball in. Four seconds is a long time, but we didn’t execute.”
The Patriots had their share of chances before Fain ever took his final shot. They outscored the Colts from the field, connecting on 24-of-42 shot attempts for 57 percent, including an 8-for-16 effort from three.
West Jessamine also shot well at 51 percent, but had two fewer shots to fall from both two-point and three-point range, going 22-for-43 from two and 6-for-10 from three.
It was at the charity stripe that West Jessamine got the edge it needed, sinking 14-of-20 foul-shot attempts while Lincoln finished at 6-for-12. The Patriots were just 3-for-7 in the fourth quarter.
“We had opportunities. If we’d just made our free throws, it could be a different story,” Jackson said. “They got three offensive rebounds under three minutes (to play) and got two baskets and got fouled on the other one. We were 3 out of 7 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, and one of those is a front end. We make our free throws, we get one or two of those rebounds that we didn’t get, and it could’ve been different.”
Neither team led by more than seven points in the game, with the margin averaging around three points.
There were five ties in the game and 10 lead changes.
West Jessamine owned the early lead with Rashawn Jackson tallying the first basket. Jacob Conway, who had 22 points for Lincoln, got the Patriots started with two free throws to tie it up.
The two teams traded buckets until the two-minute mark of the first quarter when Lincoln broke on a 10-2 run. Hoover and Conway bombed in back-to-back three-pointers; Luke Hill followed with an inside bucket; then Conway closed with a jumper to put the Patriots up 19-12.
“Lincoln is young, but they are very disciplined, very mature,” Kelley said. “They did a very good job of being disciplined until we made a mistake and then they shot the lights out when we did. It’s one thing to be disciplined and be patient but to actually then stick the shots as consistently as they did is a credit to them.”
Daulton Peters, who led West with 22 points, scored eight of the Colts’ 12 first-quarter points.
Fain dominated West’s scoring in the second quarter, pushing in 12 of his 18 in the period, but it would not be enough to help the Colts regain the lead.
Lincoln led by as many as seven points in the second quarter, bombing in four treys to hold West off. Shade Jacobs hit twice from three and Conway and Brandon Pittman each hit for one.
Fain collected a trey and a field goal late in the first half and Peters scored off a missed Colt free throw to challenge Lincoln 32-31 before Pittman hit for his three to make it 35-31 at the break.
Lincoln was holding to a seven-point lead in the third quarter with Hill, who had a game-high 25 points and 10 rebounds, getting nine in the frame.
“The first half the threes killed us, and the second half they hurt us inside,” Kelley said. “We did a better job the second half in staying home on the shooters, but then they started to go to Hill more on the inside and we had a harder time stopping him and keeping him off the board.”
West Jessamine did stop Hill enough to negate Lincoln’s lead. Will Henderson swished the nets for two three-pointers, a bucket and two free throws, and Peters closed the frame with a trey to tie the game at 46-all.
Peters then sank two free throws to start the fourth and put West up 48-46. The lead would change four more times before Fain’s final bucket. Conway hit for Lincoln midway through the fourth for the final Pat lead, 57-54. Peters went 3-for-4 at the foul line and Fain went 1-for-2 to give the edge back to West, 59-57, with 2:08 to play.
Hoover and Hill got a field goal apiece for Lincoln in the final 1:36 but missing two out of three free throws proved costly for the Pats as the Colts collected the win.
“Both of us are going to get a lot better. Neither team is playing like they are capable of right now,” Kelley said. “Their excuse is youth; ours is that we’re not really clicking right now. But we’ll take the win and get out of here without complaining, and we’ll get to practice and try to keep getting better as a basketball team.”
West returns home Friday for its first district game against Mercer County (4-1) at 7:30 p.m.
