Jon Johnson Photo/Gila Herald: Thatcher head coach Kyle Hull and the bench react to a big play at the end of the game. Thatcher came back to defeat ALA-Ironwood 57-54 on Friday night.
By Jon Johnson
THATCHER – The teams were fired up; the crowd was rim-rockin’ loud and the student section was on their feet as playoff atmosphere appeared at Thatcher High School Friday night.
In one of the best games of the season, No. 11 Thatcher (4-2 region, 9-4 conference, 18-5 overall) overcame an early double-digit deficit to avenge an earlier loss to American Leadership Academy-Ironwood and sent the Warriors packing with a stunning 57-54 victory.
“I can’t be more proud of the way we got back into this game,” said Thatcher head coach Kyle Hull who was very animated along the sidelines throughout the comeback. “Our offense was just flat the first half. I don’t know what changed but something inside of us did – every second half.”
Thatcher did start out very slow with only 5 points in the first quarter, all by Bradley Curtis. After winning the tip, Curtis got the ball and scored to give Thatcher an opening 2-0 lead. The Eagles would not lead again until the fourth quarter.
Cory Wood was straight on money from deep for ALA-Ironwood. Watching him in warmups, one knew he would be trouble and he certainly was. Wood nailed four 3-pointers in the first half (seven total on the night for a team-high 26 points) and helped ALA-Ironwood to a 16-5 first-quarter lead.
Thatcher answered back with 3’s from T.J. Reed and Cody Jones in the second quarter to supplement Curtis’ scoring down low, and the Eagles cut into the lead at the half but were still down, 30-21.
In the third quarter, Curtis continued his excellent night with 14 of the Eagles’ 18 points in the quarter. Curtis – who was playing against a team with a similar height of two 6’6” players against him, was a man among boys in the paint, hanging and drawing and-one opportunities while scoring at will. Curtis finished with a game-high 29 points with only 3 points coming from the free-throw line – though two of those charity shots would be most important down the line.
Other scorers for Thatcher included Brandon Napier with 10; Christian Carter with 7; T.J. Reed with 5, and Hudson Griffin and Cody Jones had 3 points each.
While Thatcher exploded offensively through Curtis in the third, Wood and ALA tried to keep pace. Wood nailed two more 3’s in the quarter, but Thatcher was inching closer and closer.
Other scorers for ALA included David Arrollado with 10 points; Andy Allen with 8; Mark Tampos with 4, and Jackson Chapman and Caden Edgerton with 2 points each.
With 5.3 seconds left in the third quarter, Christian Smith stole the ball from Jackson Chapman and took it to the rack. Chapman followed in tow and blocked the ball out of bounds. The refs said he caught Smith with the body, however, and Smith made 1-2 free throws to cut the Warriors’ lead to just 2 points, 41-39, at the end of the third quarter.
The crowd was pumped as the fourth quarter started, and the noise level in the gymnasium was playoff level. With 6:51 left to play, Tanner Palmer drove into the lane and was fouled hard, and was hurt on the play. Palmer left the game and Reed came in cold and nailed the two free throws to give Thatcher its first lead since the opening of the game, 45-44.
Again, Wood helped lead ALA with another 3-pointer and two free throws (3-3 on the night). With Thatcher having a razor-thin lead, 50-49, with 2:25 left to play, Brandon Napier hit a huge 3-pointer that erupted the gymnasium to push the lead to 4 points.
“I have confidence in him,” Hull said. “You gotta shoot it. It worked out tonight. I can’t be more happy for him. It was a good win for us.”
Up 5 points with 43 seconds to play, the Warriors then forced a Napier turnover and scored quickly to cut into the lead.
With Thatcher now up 55-52 and under 30 seconds to play, the Eagles turned the ball over again when a pass bounced off Hudson Griffin and went into the backcourt.
“It was just silly turnovers,” Hull said. “And we’re better than that. Being in those pressure games like that – it’s only going to help us out come the playoffs.”
Down three with only 25 seconds to play, it was no surprise the Warriors went to Wood to tie the game. However, Curtis and Napier converged on him with Napier just missing the steal. Curtis then latched onto Wood and forced him off the 3-point line. Wood drove and pulled up for a mid-range jumper with Curtis defending. The jumper clanged off but Andy Allen gathered it in and found an open Edgerton at the top of the key.
Edgerton lined up his shot with 9 seconds to play as Cody Jones ran to recover and defend. What Edgerton didn’t see was a wide-open Wood who had already nailed seven 3-pointers calling for the ball past the 3-point line on the right-wing, not a Thatcher player within 10 feet of him. The shot missed and Curtis got his biggest rebound of the game to give Thatcher possession with 5.7 seconds left.
Curtis was immediately fouled after gathering the rebound and cooly made both shots after having missed 4-5 previous foul shots and gave Thatcher a seemingly unsurmountable 5-point lead with 5.7 seconds left. Then, a bit of controversy occurred.
Wood threw a near half-court pass to Edgerton, who leaped for the ball with Napier who was defending. Christian Carter also came over to assist.
After Edgerton caught the ball, he came down and tumbled out of bounds as the referee whistle blew. It did not appear that any Thatcher player touched Edgerton, and coach Hull believed it should have been either a traveling violation or out of bounds on ALA-Ironwood. However, after a lengthy – and I mean lengthy referee discussion of what felt like at least five minutes – the scorer’s table announced they decided to say it was “an inadvertent whistle” and awarded the ball back to ALA-Ironwood. Perhaps they couldn’t decide on whether to call traveling, out of bounds, or foul. However, video of the action appears to back Hull’s assertion.
Update: One of the referees from the game contacted me and advised that the whistle came from the stands and not a referee. That caused play to stop prior to any traveling or out-of-bounds infraction could be assessed since players stopped after hearing the whistle. (Maybe these guys should have been handling that Raiders playoff game.) The delay was due to the ALA-Ironwood coach being confused on the rules and insisting a technical foul be called because Palmer re-entered the game after having left earlier due to injury and having his free throws shot by another player (see above). However, it was legal for Palmer to come back into the game at that point, according to the referee, and the referees wanted to make sure the coach understood prior to finishing the game.
In the end, down 5 points with five seconds to play it didn’t matter. The Warriors inbounded the ball to guard Mark Tampros, who took it the length of the floor and scored a layup just as time expired and Thatcher completed the comeback with the 57-54 win.
The Eagles will next travel to face the San Tan Foothills Sabercats on Monday, Jan. 31, starting at 7 p.m. Thatcher will have home games against Coolidge (Feb. 4) and Globe (Feb. 8) before finishing the regular season on the road at Florence (Feb. 11).
“Hopefully, this win will get us into the playoffs,” Hull said. “But if we can win out – Coolidge is a big name in our region. They are number one in our region and are probably a top-5 team. So, if we can get them we should have a good seed in the playoffs.”
Coolidge previously defeated Thatcher 65-60 in overtime in the first meeting between the teams this year on Jan. 18.
Click here to see the Gila Herald’s photo album of the game.
