With eight seconds left and the game tied, the play call for the Crestview Cougars is simple – give the ball to Karter Goon.
PLYMOUTH — With eight seconds left and the game tied, the play call for the Crestview Cougars is simple – give the ball to Karter Goon.
Especially when it is his 18th birthday.
The Crestview senior drove to the lane, pulled up near the foul line and banked in a buzzer-beating birthday bucket to give the Cougars a thrilling 47-45 win over the Plymouth Big Red in a huge Firelands Conference contest on Saturday, Feb. 7.
“Essentially, it was high ball screen action for Karter Goon,” Crestview’s first-year coach Ben McClay said. “He is a great basketball player, and I knew the day I took this job and saw him that he would be a special player. Great player, great kid from a great family, a great leader and he won us the game.”
Goon scored a game-high 21 points as the only Cougar in double-figures. Max Durbin added nine and Daniel Wells had eight. Goon was consistent all night with eight in the first quarter and eight in the fourth including the bucket that kept the Cougars’ Firelands Conference title hopes alive.
“We called the play and it is designed for me, so I knew I was going to be putting up the shot,” Goon said. “I had all the confidence in the world to take it for my team. I wanted to take it to the rack, but time was short and I love the pull-up jumper, so I took it and the bank was open.”
The Cougars now sit one game behind Plymouth and Monroeville, who are both tied at the top, in the Firelands Conference standings. The Cougars need to beat Western Reserve and St. Paul down the stretch and hope Plymouth drops one or both of its remaining games against St. Paul and Western Reserve and Monroeville falls to Mapleton and/or South Central.
“Coming in, we were two games back of Plymouth and one game back of Monroeville,” McClay said. “The way the league is shaping up, we have four teams at the top who could win it and then we have teams like New London, South Central and St. Paul who can upset anyone. We are really happy to beat a quality team that can win a district championship in Division VII.”
Avenging a 58-52 loss to Plymouth back on Jan. 3 was a huge boost. The Cougars are still in the league title hunt with just a few weeks left in the season.
“We lost to them the first time so, to win this one was everything,” Goon said. “We want to just win out. That is our only focus for the rest of the season. If we win out and get some help, we can be right there in the conference championship conversation.”
And a rivalry win is the perfect way to start.
“We saw a lot of Plymouth hype before the season and no Crestview hype,” McClay said. “So that lit a fire in us. We have really grown as a team and have been finding ways to close games down the stretch.”
Plymouth once held a three-game lead in the Firelands Conference standings and that is now down to zero as the Big Red are tied with Monroeville at the top. They have to win out to claim at least a share of their first FC title since 2014-15. Jarrett Burrer led the Big Red with 20 points while Izaya Reynolds added nine.
“You always learn whether you win or lose,” Plymouth coach Tim Brafford said. “You pick some things up and work on them from every moment of every game, so this will be a huge learning experience. We have a lot to look forward to with the rest of the season and into the tournament. Hopefully, the kids respond to adversity and make some memories the rest of the year.”
And there was one glaring thing the Big Red (13-6, 9-3 in the FC) will take from the loss to Crestview and work to improve on it down the stretch.
“It was a great game,” Brafford said. “Crestview is big, strong and physical and it was great competition. We struggled rebounding and gave up too many offensive rebounds. We let them shoot 3 and 4 times each possession and it was frustrating.”
For Goon, it was a perfect full-circle moment. The Cougars improved to 9-9 with five of those losses coming by single digits and two more coming by 10 points as they finally figured out a way to win a close game. The secret might be just as easy as giving the ball to Goon and letting him win it.
“He had two games this year where he had the opportunity to win it and missed them both,” McClay said. “So, for him to take that show shows his resiliency. He hit the big one on his birthday for a huge league win. I am so excited for him.”
Brafford praised Goon.
“He made a great shot,” Brafford said. “He is an unstoppable down-hill player, and his strength makes him hard to stop, but he can also pull up and shoot from anywhere. He is just dangerous and can hurt you in so many ways. Give that kid so much credit.”
It turned out Goon’s 18th birthday will be one for the ages.
“I am never going to forget this one,” Goon said. “Never.”
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Crestview Cougars beat Plymouth Big Red in Firelands Conference basketball
Category: General Sports
