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Woods, JFK knock off VASJ

Tribune Chronicle / John Vargo Villa Angela-St. Joseph’s Noah Newton guards John F. Kennedy’s B.J. Williams during Saturday’s game in Warren.

WARREN — Nate Woods had scored just four points late in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t one of his better shooting nights.

The John F. Kennedy 6-foot-4 senior had the ball in his hands with seconds remaining in the game and the Eagles boys basketball team trailing by one.

He dribbled up to the right elbow, elevated and shot.

His teammates watched as the ball left his hands.

“I love Nate to death, but it was a half-and-half scare, half-and-half happy,” said 6-6 senior forward Antonio McQueen, who had 22 points and 14 rebounds. “This season he was taking jumpers and he wasn’t making them.”

“That’s Nate’s shot,” said 6-2 senior guard Justin Bofenkamp, who had 22 points. “It hasn’t been dropping lately.

“If I had to pick any shot for him, it’s that elbow pull-up. He pulled it up, guy right in his face.”

It swished through the basket for a 70-69 lead with 1.5 seconds remaining.

Villa Angela-St. Joseph took the ball up the court and shot a 3 from the corner, which airballed as JFK celebrated a rare victory over a team that has been a staple at the state tournament and won recent state championships in 2013 and ’15.

“I hadn’t been shooting good all night,” Woods said. “I wanted to bring the game home for us. I was able to create some space off the crossover. That mid-range pull up is a shot I work on all the time. It felt good.

“I got it to drop for me.”

JFK (15-7, 6-4 North Coast League White Tier) seemed far from a victory in the third quarter as the Vikings (16-6, 9-1) took a 26-16 advantage in that 8-minute stanza.

Kennedy dominated early as Bofenkamp drove through the lane twice in the first minute-and-a-half as the Eagles amassed a 36-27 lead.

After a couple of turnovers, VA-SJ started to whittle away at JFK’s lead. William Butler, who had nine of his 11 points in the third quarter, completed a three-point play with 3:04 left in the quarter to give the Vikings a 41-40 lead. VA-SJ finished the quarter on a 19-4 run.

Prior to Butler’s three-point play, JFK’s Byron Taylor, who had 10 points, committed a foul leading to Jerry Higgins’ three-point play with 3:30 remaining in the third. Taylor was also whistled for a technical on the play. Higgins had four of his team-high 19 points off the play, including 1 of 2 off the technical free throws.

“How to overcome adversity has been one of our biggest things all season long,” JFK coach Mark Komlanc said. “We’ve had good moments and we’ve had bad moments. For the most part we’ve handled it pretty well. We’ve been in those situations before. I think that really helped them. I don’t think they had any doubt in their mind that they could or would come back in this game.”

The Eagles began the fourth quarter with Bofenkamp having four fouls. He picked up two quick ones with 3 minutes left in the third.

It didn’t stop the JFK senior from being aggressive on offense or defense.

“Being in a tight game, potential to win, when I came back in, it’s 100 percent all out,” Bofenkamp said. “I couldn’t say I have four fouls and I’m going to give up this layup, or I’m not going to dive on the floor. You don’t know what play is going to change the entire outcome of the game.”

He drove to the basket with 5:12 left and made 1 of 2 from the line — Kennedy was 6 of 8 from the stripe in the fourth quarter.

Komlanc said Bofenkamp did the intangibles to help JFK overcome the Vikings.

“Just calming us down when we started going 150 miles per hour when they went on that little run,” Komlanc said.

VA-SJ 6-8 sophomore Alonzo Gaffney, who had 12 points, missed a windmill dunk by hitting the front of the rim with 3:35 remaining.

McQueen, who was on Gaffney most of the night, had a two-handed slam with 2:30 left to cut the lead to 61-56.

McQueen went inside-out and found teammate Evan Boyd for his lone points on a 3 from the left corner with 1:30 remaining as VA-SJ clung to a 65-61 lead.

McQueen then drove on Gaffney with 52 seconds left and drew the foul — eventually connecting on the 3-point play as the Eagles trailed 67-66.

Butler was fouled 7 seconds later and missed his second front end of a one-and-one.

Bofenkamp cut through the VA-SJ defense with 28.7 seconds remaining and gave the Eagles their first lead since the 3:30 mark of the third quarter, 68-67.

Gaffney countered on the other end to put the Vikings up 69-68 before Woods clinched the game.

Kennedy shot 9 of 12 in the fourth quarter and was 27 of 49 for the game. VA-SJ was 29 of 59.

This comeback was no surprise to Komlanc, who has seen the resilience of this team.

“Because they don’t know any better,” he said. “That’s kind of the way we’ve played all year.”

Tuesday, third-seeded John F. Kennedy hosts 11th-seeded Newbury in a Division IV sectional first-round game, starting at 7 p.m.

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