Coventry, Ohio —
Lady Luck was in Coventry Friday night as the Comets took on the Southeast Pirates, but made an early exit to the dismay of the home team.
OK, some may not call it luck, but it was hard to explain Coventry's fourth quarter shooting in a 52-43 loss. The Comets (4-6) missed multiple wide-open shots in a game that was neck-and-neck for three tough quarters.
After tying the game twice in the third quarter and only trailing by two at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Southeast was able to blow the game wide open with a 9-3 run to open up the game's final period. Coventry, even with a couple hot hands from behind the arc from senior Zach DeShane and junior Alex Tackett, who each had two three-pointers in the second half, was never able to recover.
"Missed shots, missed shots, missed shots," coach Roger Reynolds said. "We were taking good shots — wouldn't go. We got a couple put-back layups we couldn't make, a couple driving layups we didn't make. And then suddenly you go from one point down to now about five down, and of course they pulled (the ball) out to hold it."
Reynolds was not only baffled by his team's inability to hit open shots, but with the difference in the opportunities each team received at the foul line. Coventry shot only five free throws in the game, compared to Southeast's 21.
"They shot some good foul shots," Reynolds said. "We didn't get many foul shots — I think we only made one. Which is hard to believe a team can play full court for four quarters and we only get five foul shots. But, you know, that's the way it's been going for us all year — we don't get a call whenever we should."
One call the Comets did get was a technical in the fourth quarter — on themselves — after they went on a 6-2 run, which killed any chance of a comeback for the home team.
"We got a little frustrated when we got the technical, which he shouldn't have got, but he's out there getting smacked in the mouth and pushed around and there's no call and as soon as he touches a kid of course they call a foul," Reynolds said. "There was just a lot of frustration there."
The Comets had already come back multiple times in the game, twice in the third quarter after facing deficits of five and six points. Junior Zach Sherbourne led the Comets in scoring with nine points, followed by Jake Frounfelker and DeShane with eight points each.
Reynolds said he was looking forward to this matchup with the Pirates because of the similar size of their team to his undersized squad. The size of his team, however, made it difficult to capitalize on the zone defense the Pirates used throughout the game to stop Coventry's outside shooters.
"This team was really our size, but I have no clue though why suddenly we can't make shots," Reynolds said. "Everyone's playing us in zone and we haven't shot well since they all started playing zone. We think we've got a lot of good shooters, but they haven't really showed up since the teams went to zone. The big problem is that we have no size. So we can't say 'oh, we're going to bounce one to him,' because we just don't have that guy to bounce it into."
The Comets will take on Ravenna Tuesday before a rematch against Springfield Friday, a team they beat earlier this season.
