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Franklin
Monroe junior Martin Maksvytis (33) shows his emotions while
Daniel
Fourman (far right) hangs his head after the Bethel Bees handed
the Jets their first conference loss
Friday, 63-62, in overtime. CNO
Photos by Dylan Knoop
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Bethel hands FM its first CCC loss
Jets forced to share title
By George Starks
PITSBURG- Valentine’s Day meant little to nothing to Bethel Friday
night as the Bees brought in their own brand of love to the ‘Hangar’.
It was less than two weeks ago, at Tri-Village, the Patriots and the
Jets were both undefeated on a Tuesday night that brought eight inches
of snow.
With both teams being undefeated in the Cross County Conference, it was
the Jets that walked away with a 54-46 victory.
That set up the showdown between the Bees and the Jets.
On a snowy senior night in Pitsburg, the Jets offense could never get
fired up as the Bees upended Franklin Monroe Friday, 63-62, in overtime.
“This was a district final game. A definite post season tournament
game,” said a dejected Franklin Monroe coach Troy Myers. “This is tough
to swallow, especially on your home court. It’s tough to swallow trying
to get your twentieth win of the season. It’s tough to swallow on your
senior night. This is a hard pill to get down.”
It didn’t take long for the Bees to come out and set the tone of the
game.
Bethel jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the Jets were able to get on the
board and with Less than six minutes left on the first quarter clock,
it was Myers that was bringing in his original starters after
starting his five seniors.
That may have been too long to wait as normal starters, Martin
Maksvytis and Marcus Horner wasn’t able to get the Jets engines fired
up as Bethel led 13-7 after one.
“I told my guys I think we lost this game in the first four minutes,”
said Myers. “It’s hard to look back on but when you play the caliber of
team like that, you better be spot on for four quarters or even four
and a half like tonight.”
Trailing the whole night, the Jets never gained their first lead of the
night until the 1:56 mark of the third when senior Travis Feitshans
scored two of his game high thirty points, giving FM a slim 35-34
advantage.
From that point, it was back and forth the rest of the way as neither
team would hold more than a four point lead.
Bethel would hold that four point lead on two different occasions.
The first would be in the fourth quarter with 3:24 left in the game,
47-43.
With the lead changing hands three more times and the Jets holding a
55-53 lead with 3.7 seconds remaining in regulation, Christian Hagan
nailed the shot that forced the dreaded overtime.
When the smoke had cleared, the clock was set for four more minutes and
it all broke loose.
Bethel scored the first four points before the Jets would counter with
a trey from Maksvytis, cutting the lead to a 59-58 count at the 1:33
mark.
Franklin Monroe would take a short lived lead, 60-59, with 37.9 seconds
remaining when Marcus Horner would hit both ends of a one-and-one.
It all came to a head with 8.6 seconds when Hagen took off to the far
end of the floor and caught a pass in the paint, scoring the easy two,
giving the Bees the 63-62 advantage.
“They took advantage of the opportunities they had,” said Myers. “At
the end of overtime, they get the Hail Mary down the lane and we blew
it, they get a lay-up. You have to be fundamentally sound for four
quarters and we let our guard down at the end of overtime. You have to
give Bethel credit, they played when they had to and got the win
tonight.”
Having lost a overtime thriller at Tri-Village on January 24, 58-55,
Bethel coach Eric Glover said that night his team had struggled all
season when it came to putting good teams away when they had big leads.
Friday, Glover’s tune was totally different when asked what the
difference was in a loss to the Patriots and a win over the Jets.
“We didn’t get rattled when things got noisy,” said Glover. “In the
past, we would get shook and fall apart. Franklin Monroe is a solid
team and Myers is a class act. These kids are good. We came ready to
play tonight and at Tri-Village, we were ready to play but we couldn’t
finish. We gave up in the end. Tonight, we finished strong and never
got rattled.”
With the loss, Franklin Monroe and Tri-Village completed the CCC
portion of the 2014 season tied with 10-1 conference marks and a share
of the conference title with the Patriots.
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Bethel
senior Patrick Bain, blocks the shot of Jets senior Trey Mong during
first half action
Friday night. Bain, put up 20 points for the Bees in a winning effort.
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Franklin
Monroe senior Daniel Fourman drives the lane in the fourth quarter.
Fourman
netted just seven points in the Cross County Conference battle with
Bethel.
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