Springfield caps perfect week with Flyin’ win

Less than 24 hours after defeating Wayne for its biggest win of the season, Springfield was cruising toward a double-digit victory Saturday afternoon at the Flyin’ to the Hoop showcase. Then the Wildcats almost let a perfect ending to a perfect week fly out the Trent Arena doors.

Columbus Eastmoor sliced a 14-point deficit to three with a 12-1 run. But senior Danny Davis made three free throws in the final 29 seconds to allow Springfield to hold on for a 64-61 victory.

“All I can say is we’ll take it,” Wildcats coach Isiah Carson said. “We didn’t play very well. Both ends were sloppy. But we got it done.”

Springfield (10-1) has spoiled Carson this season with lots of 32-minute, foot-on-the-gas efforts. But after Davis scored with 4:12 left for a 60-46 lead, the Cats’ engine started to misfire. They couldn’t score, they committed turnovers and the Eastmoor (6-5) tandem of 6-foot-8 Stanley Williams and 6-7 Stephan Williams took over in the paint. A final 3-point attempt to tie rimmed out.

“We’ve got to keep our foot on the pedal,” Carson said. “We kind of let up and thought it was over. Teams aren’t going to give up. You’ve got to fight till the end.”

That’s what the Cats have been doing, including in Friday night’s 67-55 win over GWOC rival Wayne and Tuesday’s 46-40 win at nemesis Centerville. Carson’s program is growing in depth and developing players like starting guards Micheal Wallace, a junior, and Lazarus Tolliver, a senior who played JV last year, to go with established players like Davis, senior guard Michael McKay and junior post Leonard Taylor.

“I love our guards, I love our togetherness and I love our defense,” Carson said. “Everybody went and got better. We’ve got a true program.”

Carson says defense is the identity of his program but he also has scorers. McKay, who averages 16 points a game, knows how the offense works.

“I know they’re keying on Danny and they’re sleeping on me,” he said. “I’m going to bring a spark, and then if they get me we’ve got Leonard. As a big man he can shoot the ball and go to the basket.”

That’s exactly how Saturday’s game played out for the Cats.

Davis, who averages 19, scored nine of the Cats’ first 13 points. Then it was McKay’s turn: 3-pointer, fast-break layup, another 3-pointer, a steal and layup and on it went until he’d scored 14 straight points. After Davis made another 3-pointer, McKay hit his third and the Cats led 34-28 at the half.

Taylor, who averages 11 a game, started the second half with an aggressive drive for two free throws and the first of two 3-pointers to push the lead to nine. Davis got involved again as did sophomore forward RaHeim Moss with six straight points off the bench to close the third quarter.

The final line for the Cats’ big three: Davis 20 points, McKay 19 and Taylor 11 with a combined seven 3-pointers.

“We know each other’s games,” McKay said. “We always pick each other up, and in tough times we’re going to stick together.”

Davis and Taylor played key roles two years ago on the way to the regional final. All three were there for the district final last year.

“We’ve got a great cohesiveness about this team,” Carson said. “I think it’s a special team, and they can do some good things this year.”

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