Athens Falls to Waterford Mott 42-38 in District Semifinals

It was easy to sense the frustration from the boys basketball team on Wednesday night as the Red Hawks lost a very winnable basketball game on their home court in the district semifinals 42-38 to Waterford Mott.

“If you would told me the first team tonight to 40 would win I wouldn’t have believed you, but that’s the game it turned out to be,” Athens coach Dave Scott said.

Neither team showed any kind of consistency on the offensive end. The Corsairs opened the game by missing their first 10 shots. They didn’t score a single field goal for the first seven minutes of the game.

The Red Hawks' (15-7) shooting performance wasn’t much better, but their dry spell from the field couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Marcarius Coakley hit a 3-pointer to tie the game up 32-32 with 5:39 left in the game. Athens didn’t score again until Caleb McIntosh’s putback with 50 seconds left on the clock.

“We tied the game back up and just couldn’t score again,” Scott said. “Mott did a great job, they really jammed us up. They played great team defense; we struggled offensively. We weren’t hitting shots we normally we hit, they did a nice job.”

Mott was up by as many as seven points in the final minutes. With the Red Hawks struggling to score points, the Corsairs should’ve sailed to a comfortable win.

A near-disastrous performance from the free throw line in the final two minutes kept Athens comeback hopes alive. Mott missed the front end of three consecutive one-and-ones and finished the stretch only 3-of-9 from the line.

With 17.3 seconds left in the game, the Red Hawks had the ball with a chance to tie down 41-38.

McIntosh brought the ball up the crowd and slipped trying to get past a defender. He tried to recover, but knocked the ball out of bounds with nine seconds on the clock.

“Just a little off all night, but we had plenty of opportunities, even there at the end of the game,” Red Hawks coach Dave Scott said. “We had unforced turnovers, from the guys that have been doing it for us all year.”

Mott guard Khalil Malone hit one of his two free throws to finally close out the win. Malone finished with a game-high 15 points.

McIntosh was the lone Athens player in double-digits with 12 points. Coakley scored all nine of his points in the second half.

The Corsairs advance to the district finals for a game against Troy on Friday night at 7 p.m. The district championship game will be at Athens High School.