Griffith’s buzzer beater highlights back-to-back wins
January 15, 2012 • By RJ Terrero, Staff Reporter
Filed under Sports, Top Stories
With back-to-back conference wins against Christiana and Dickinson, Pencader Charter High School’s boys basketball team has evened its record at 5-5 midway through the season.
On Tuesday at Christiana, the Titans and Vikings battled each other in a close game that kept fans on the edges of their seats. While the Titans had trouble stopping sophomore Shawn Mitchell, who scored 35 points, Pencader had the lead when it counted most.
Trailing 61-60 with less than two seconds remaining, the Titans were inbounding the ball under their own basket. A double screen was supposed to set senior Ricky Reyes free for the final shot, but Christiana’s defense prevented that play from happening.
Junior Aaron Griffith, one of the players setting the screen for Reyes, broke toward the basket. Freshman Elijah Styles tossed the inbounds pass to Griffith, who put up a shot from under the basket.
As Griffith fell to the ground under pressure from Christiana, the shot went in, the ref signaled that it beat the buzzer, and Pencader won the intense game 62-61.
“That was my first buzzer beater,” Griffith said. “I had to run away from everybody on my team because they were coming after me.”
Reyes led the Titans with 19 points against the Vikings, followed by senior Demetri Williams (16 points) and Griffith (14 points).
Two days later at home, Williams led all scorers with 22 points and Pencader beat Dickinson 61-51. Reyes sank 10 of 12 foul shots and scored 16 points, and junior Ezekiel Shockley added 10 points.
Pencader’s next game is at home on Thursday (Jan. 19) at 5 pm against McKean, a team that is 2-8 and struggling to get wins this season. The Titans beat the Highlanders by 33 points on Dec. 29 in the Quaker Classic holiday tournament. On Saturday (Jan. 21), the Titans play at Tower Hill at 6:30 pm against the 3-8 Hillers.
Pencader went 10-10 last season and squeezed into the state tournament. Now, with the momentum of back-to-back wins, the Titans are hoping to add to their winning streak and make another run for the playoffs, where anything can happen.
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