Freeman survives hectic fourth quarter for boys basketball win over Godwin

The locker room was pin-drop quiet.

You’d expect, though, that since Douglas Freeman had just defeated visiting Mills Godwin 47-43, the Mavericks’ inner sanctum just off the Larry Parpart Pavilion would be rocking, music would be blaring, and Coach Chapin George’s guys would be in an uber-celebratory mood.

Why, then, were they silent?

Simple.

With four minutes to go in their typically wild-and-wooly matchup with their longtime West End rival, they’d blown open a tie game with a 16-0 run over a six-minute span, then watched their seemingly insurmountable lead dissipate over the final 4:30 to a mere two points in the game’s closing seconds.

“The fourth quarter was hectic,” said Drew Nunnally, Freeman’s 6-3 senior forward. “We were throwing up lobs, airballing shots, missing free throws. That’s uncharacteristic for us. It comes down to discipline. It’s something we need to work on: knowing the game’s not over when there’re a couple of minutes left.”

The first two-and-a-half quarters were a clinic in defensive effort and execution.

The Eagles (5-10) led 14-10 after the first period, but the Mavericks (12-4) took a 16-14 lead at 5:06 of the second on a transition layup by Abram Schrinel (17 points) enroute to a tenuous 19-16 advantage at halftime.

“Typically, these Freeman-Godwin games are battles,” said George. “There’re always going to be bodies flying on the floor and kids playing extremely hard. When that happens, you might have some ugly basketball at times, but we were able to put together some good runs on offense and defense in the second half.”

Each team showed the other a variety of defensive looks, mostly very active zones plus some man-to-man.

Each applied ball pressure, clogged passing lanes, and defended the paint as well as the perimeter.

Rebounds and 50-50 balls often resulted in scrums with neither team yielding.

At 2:27 of the third quarter, Godwin’s Gavin Waters (13 points) hit a 3-pointer from the right baseline to tie the game at 21.

Schrinel hit a layup at 2:06 enabling Freeman to enter the fourth with a 23-21 lead.

At that point, the Mavericks’ offense came alive.

At 7:34, Grayden Thouron drained a 3-pointer from the left baseline off a Quentin Sullivan assist, Bennett Friday scored from close range at 7:06, and Thouron added a second 3 at 6:26 to put Freeman up 31-21.

“It’s trusting my guys and them knowing that finding me in the corner is where I like it,” said Thouron, a 6-0 senior guard and four season varsity veteran who scored a career high 12 points, all of which came in the fourth quarter. “Godwin-Freeman games are always super hectic. I try to block out the noise. During timeouts and dead balls, I try to take deep breaths, close my eyes, and reset.”

The Eagles switched to man-to-man after their second timeout of the quarter but to little avail.

Alex Blanchard penetrated their defense for a layup at 5:41, and Schrinel scored twice from close range, first on a transition layup following a turnover, then on a putback, and with 4:45 remaining, the Mavericks led 37-21 and had firm control of the momentum.

So they thought.

“Our goal was to close out the game,” said Thouron. “Obviously, we didn’t do the job that we wanted to. Ninety percent of what happened was self-imposed. We made some silly errors. Got a little lackadaisical. Thought the game was out of reach when there was still time on the clock. 

“Until the clock hits zero, the game’s not over. That’s what we talked about in the locker room: how to fix that and do better.”

Buckets by Hayden Cornwell and Obi Pinn (14 points) cut Godwin’s deficit to 37-25.

Schrinel’s 3-point play put Freeman up 40-25 at 3:54.

As the Eagles used a 13-2 run over the next three minutes to close to 42-38, the Mavs missed six straight free throws.

Then, amidst the tension, Thouron connected twice from the line at 0:33 to put Freeman up 6.

At 0:17.7, Waters struck from behind the arc off Sean Hetzel’s assist to cut Freeman’s lead to 44-41. 

Schrinel’s free throw at 0:15 gave the Mavs a four-point lead.

At 0:08, Hetzel scored from the paint off an inbounds pass.

With a second remaining, Thouron calmly swished two free throws, which enabled the Mavericks to breath a huge sigh of relief.

“Our guys learned an easy lesson,” George said. “The majority of the team, by their body language, thought the game was over. In all honesty, it should have been. We should have been able to close the game.

“It was one of the only wins against Godwin that I’ve walked into a quiet locker room. I take that as a silver lining because it means they already recognize their mistakes. We had a good talk and came to an agreement that they won’t happen again.”