Monacan's Amare Cooper reaches 1,000 points in comeback win over Manchester
Take a bow, Amare Cooper.
You, too, Tai Bowler.
Thanks to your hustle, spirit, and leadership, you and your Monacan Chiefs teammates overcame a rocky start Wednesday night, refused to back down, and twice rallied from behind to score a well-earned, much needed 59-54 victory over Manchester before your adoring, high-decibel home crowd.
Cooper, first.
At 2:38 of the third quarter, the 6-3 senior and Division II University of Mount Olive commit, stepped to the free throw line and, amidst the tension of the moment, calmly swished both shots.
The second was his 1,000th career point.
The partisan crowd exploded with applause.
By pre-arrangement, the game stopped.
Coach R. J. Spelsberg went to mid-court and presented him with an inscribed basketball commemorating the achievement.
Photo ops followed.
“It’s definitely unbelievable,” said Cooper, who scored 23 points and hit 9-of-10 free throws. “If you’d asked me three years ago, I don’t think I would have been here.
“I credit the program at Monacan and my teammates. And I credit myself, because I put the work in and got what I got.”
Now Bowler.
The 6-1 senior point guard’s ledger read 16 points, seven rebounds, six assists, four steals, and two blocks.
“I was really just trying to create for my teammates today,” he said of his role on offense. “Every time I drove, they were loading up in double teams. That means, obviously, someone else is open. I was trying to get my teammates easy buckets and build a lead off of that.”
He was a defensive presence, as well, most notably as the front man in the Chiefs’ 1-3-1 press designed to harry and hurry the Lancers into turnovers or missed shots.
“When I’m up top, I’m trying to force the guard with the ball to the sideline so we can get some traps going and force a cross-court pass where we have big, athletic wings on the side where we can get steals,” Bowler said. “I’m just trying to speed up their offense so they can’t get into any sets.”
And twice he hit the deck hard, remained there momentarily, then headed to the bench to catch his breath before returning quickly and unbowed to join in the no-holds-barred fray.
“This was a big win for us,” Bowler said. “It’ll definitely get us going. It’s our first whole game as a team where we really played together. Everyone was on the court. Everyone was healthy. I’m looking forward to continuing the streak.”
Manchester (11-2) had won 11 straight games since falling to Monacan 85-77 in double overtime on December 2.
This time, the Lancers (8-4) used man-to-man pressure and sharp shooting from the field to bolt to an 11-2 lead.
They led 19-12 after the first quarter and went into halftime up 29-20.
“We’ve been in a little bit of a slump lately,” Spelsberg said. “I thought we just came out flat and with no energy. We were lackadaisical on defense. We were allowing dribble penetration. We weren’t closing out on shooters. We weren’t playing aggressively.
“We needed to pick it up.”
The Chiefs did, of course, and, executing their protean 2-3 zone and later their 1-3-1 press with more fire and precision, they launched into a 12-0 run that ended with Cooper’s landmark free throw which put them ahead 32-29.
Bowler lit the spark with a steal and layup at 7:14 and later scored on a transition layup. Cooper contributed the other eight points on two buckets from the paint and 4-for-4 accuracy from the line.
“It was in ourselves,” said Cooper of the Chiefs’ second-half resurgence. “We knew we had to be better. We fixed it. Then it came down to actually doing it.”
Tough and resilient, the Lancers ended the quarter with an 11-6 run of their own and entered the fourth with a 40-38 lead thanks to a buzzer-beater from behind the arc by Desmond Clark (14 points).
Devin Butler (11 points) opened the final quarter with a 3-ball from the right wing to put Manchester up 43-38.
With five minutes remaining, Camari Crawford scored from point-blank range off a pass from Tyler Gibson (19 points) to give the Lancers a 46-42 lead.
The Chiefs’ responded with a lightning-fast 13-0 run that put them ahead 55-46 when Cooper hit a back-door layup off a Bowler assist.
Try as they might, the Lancers could not overcome the Chiefs’ defensive intensity.
“Our buckets came, but they came from the defense,” Cooper said. “It was having active hands and being energetic.
“That’s all it came down to. That’s what we had to do to win the game.”
