Broken Healer

Warriors dig deep to rise up

At least time was on Whitesboro’s side.Enough time, though, to make up an 18-0 deficit?Junior guard Mike Ryan thought so.“I was still confident we could come back, once we started hitting some shots,” Ryan said of the early hole his Warriors’ dug in Monday night’s nonleague game against Rome Free Academy. “I wasn’t completely sure, but I know we have some fight in this team. I knew we were going to battle.”Whitesboro’s Warriors did that, and more.By halftime, they had pared RFA’s lead to 10 points. In Whitesboro’s 28-point third quarter, Ryan made three of his team’s five 3-pointers. And in the end, backcourt mate Junior Woodard scored nine fourth-quarter points to help the Warriors stave off a late RFA rally and pull out a 65-61 victory.Ryan finished with 23 and Woodard had 16 points and six assists for Class A Whitesboro (11-3).RFA senior guard Tom Williams had five 3-pointers and scored 25 points. Junior center Eric Williams had 14 points and 10 rebounds and junior guard Tim Abone added 10 points and six assists for the Class AA Black Knights (2-13).Between them, the teams launched 50 shots from beyond the 3-point arc – Whitesboro was 11-for-30 and RFA was 9-for-20.“I wasn’t expecting anything like that. … We were all frustrated,” said Ryan, he and the rest of the Warriors a bit stunned by RFA’s early hot hand. “They came out and they didn’t miss a shot.”Williams drained three 3-pointers, Abone had five points and three assists, and the Black Knights had an 18-0 lead in the first 5½ minutes.“This was probably a game they circled on their schedule as a winnable game, and they came out and played like it,” said Whitesboro coach Steve Heitz, who called two timeouts in the first four minutes. He also replaced all five starters with Cody Passalacqua, Brendan Heitz, M.J. Hajec, Ryan Watson and Mike Sullivan when it was 13-0.Those reserves started the comeback, Passalacqua and Heitz hitting 3s and the Warriors holding RFA without a field goal for over 5½ minutes.“The five guys who went in there gave us a spark; the pressure was off then,” said Steve Heitz. “The one constant we’ve had all year has been energy, and we always tell them they’re not going to win or lose the game in the first half – it takes 32 minutes. It was so early and obviously, with the 3-point shot, that (18-point deficit) is only six possessions.”By intermission, RFA’s lead had dwindled to 34-24. Ryan Wells and Scott Barry then got Whitesboro’s second half off to a good start, triggering a 13-0 run that included 3-pointers by Ryan and Chris Gibbs.Ryan made four straight shots, including three 3s, and scored 13 points in that third period. Heitz also scored from long range to give the Warriors a 52-44 lead entering the fourth quarter.“We knew they had a couple of great shooters,” said RFA coach Nick Medicis. “You know that at some point, they’re going to hit some shots.”Woodard scored Whitesboro’s first seven points in the final period, helping the Warriors open a 13-point lead.RFA then staged a comeback of its own. Three-pointers by Tom Williams and Mark Capponi ignited a 14-2 run, and the Black Knights pulled even at 61-61 when Ryan Cooke sank two free throws with 2:40 left to play.Woodard, however, broke the tie on a short jumper with 1:46 remaining, and after an RFA turnover cost the Black Knights a shot at the tie or the lead, Ryan converted 1-and-1 free throws with 4.9 seconds left.“We’ve had three or four games (including a one-point loss to Thomas R. Proctor) that have been down to the wire,” said Medicis. “I couldn’t be prouder of our effort. We’re right there. We’re just a play or two away.”Whitesboro 65, RFA 61 RFA 18 16 10 17 — 61 Whitesboro 6 18 28 13 — 65 Rome Free Academy (0-7, 2-13): Tom Williams 25, Eric Williams 14, Tim Abone 10, Ryan Cooke 6, Mark Capponi 6. Totals: 24-4-61. Whitesboro (8-2, 11-3): Junior Woodard 16, Mike Ryan 23, Chris Gibbs 3, Ryan Wells 5, Scott Barry 4, Cody Passalacqua 3, Brendan Heitz 9, Ryan Watson 2. Totals: 23-8-65. 3-point goals: RFA 9 (T. Williams 5, Abone 2, Capponi 2); Whitesboro 11 (Ryan 5, Heitz 3, Woodard, Passalacqua, Gibbs). JV: …