FH Eastern tops Greenville at the buzzer
GREENVILLE — For the second time this season, the Greenville and Forest Hills Eastern boys basketball teams went into overtime.
Unfortunately, for the second time Eastern (12-6, 6-2) knocked off the Yellow Jackets with a shot at the buzzer.
Blake Massie’s first basket of the night was also the last basket of the night. Eastern, with the final possession, was able to get a player open in the paint and Massie did not miss to give his team a 71-69 win over Greenville.
“It was a situation where there was 30 seconds of chaos,” Greenville coach Mark Haist said. “We got wrapped up in it and they ended up with it at the end. We were hoping for the last shot, but they ended up with that.”
Greenville (6-12, 1-7) trailed by three with just 8.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Following a timeout, senior Miguel Nieto drained a three-pointer from the wing to tie the game at 58-58 and force overtime.
Eastern took a 66-62 lead before Greenville battled back. Trailing 68-64, Ryan Davis hit a three-pointer to pull within one.
Two missed free throws by Eastern allowed the Jackets to come down and take the lead on a Davis layup at 69-68.
Caleb Kigar was fouled on the inbounds pass and made one free throw to tie the game. Greenville, with Haist hoping for the final shot with 30 seconds remaining, fired up a quick shot and gave the ball back to Eastern.
That’s when, after a mad scramble, Massie found an open spot and scored the winner.
“We just have to learn. We made some mental errors that are avoidable,” Haist said. “We have to clean those up. The effort was there, but we have to clean up the mistakes.”
Nieto led Greenville with 17 points. Curtis Heppe added 10 points.
Nick Hopkins scored a game-high 28 points for the Hawks.
Greenville will travel to Grand Rapids West Catholic on Friday.
Bruce Bentley
Bruce Bentley is the Sports Editor of The Daily News. He is also the "voice" of Greenville Yellow Jacket football and basketball on 1380 AM.Bruce Bentley has written 400 articles.
Haist needs to pay better attention to his players. Both big men were fouled out, so smaller guys played the big guys positions while taller players with more ability sat the bench, some who have sat the bench the entire season with very little playing time. Obviously what the coach has been doing has NOT been working, look at the win loss record, why not change things up and get those players that actually made the varsity squad some playing time. As with all Greenville sports though, it is not about ability, it is all about people and politics.