Eagles Man Up to Win Opener in Overtime

For more than four quarters, the West Deptford High School boys’ basketball team struggled mightily behind the three-point arc. By the time senior Tim Fair put up his off-balance three-pointer midway through overtime, the Eagles had jacked up 24 threes, yet connected on only two of them.

Who knew shooting 3-for-23 could feel so good?

Fair drilled a three-pointer with one minute, 29 seconds left in overtime to give the lead for good in a 57-53 overtime win over Sterling in Colonial Conference, non-division action Friday night.

The win was the program's first over a Liberty Division team in three years.

“One was going to fall eventually,” said Fair, a forward who spends much of the time in the post. “I’m probably not the guy taking that shot every game, but I hit it and it helped my team win.”

Fair’s shot came after he tracked down his own miss, dribbled out and faded away for the jumper. He added two free throws on the next possession to help the Eagles match their biggest lead of the night.

“Sometimes you have nights like that where the ball just won’t go in,” West Deptford coach Don Clark said. “I said to somebody, ‘We just need something to go in, just one.' That wasn’t a good shot, but it goes in and sometimes you have to win games like that.

"It wasn’t pretty, but it was a typical opener with teams trying to find their footing.”

The game was back and forth throughout, with neither team able to create significant distance through the first four quarters. What the Eagles lacked in shooting ability, they made up for in hard-nosed, man-to-man defense.

“Ever since we came in here as freshmen, coach has preached to us, defense is the key,” said senior Tom Jakubowski, who had a game-high 22 points. “You have to play good man-to-man defense and help each other out. That’s what we did. We all stepped up and we all played big. Everyone played big minutes.”

“All preseason all we did was defense, defense, defense,” said Fair, who netted 13. “I don’t think we even took a shot the first week of practice. We just focused on help defense and our defensive packages and that helped us with the victory today.”

Clark has sworn by the man-to-man defense during his tenure. Despite all of the losses, he stuck to his guns, and now he is seeing the system pay off.

“We knew that (good defense) was going to be the cornerstone of any program,” Clark said. “We stuck with the man even two years ago (a two-win season), and the reason why we stuck with it was for a night like tonight.

"To me, you can’t really get a strong physical team unless you play man. We stayed with it last year even in times when maybe we shouldn’t have, and I think you are seeing the benefit. The kids have to buy in and they bought in.”

The Eagles were trailing 34-32 with 48 seconds left in the third quarter when sophomore point guard Justin Hansen (10 points) knocked down a three to give the Eagles a one-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. Until that point, West Deptford was 0-for-15 from beyond the arc.

The Eagles led by as many as five points in the fourth, but Sterling battled back to tie the game at 40 with 4:55 left. West Deptford led 45-44 with 24 seconds left, when the Knights Marcus Taylor stepped to the free throw line and only hit one of two shots to tie the game. Taylor had a rough night from the charity stripe, connecting on just 2-for-8 shots.

West Deptford had a chance to win it in regulation, but Kyle Redrow’s shot in the final seconds came up well short. Fair grabbed the rebound with a second left and drew some contact, but the whistles remained silent, much to the dismay of the Eagles.

Fair was upset with the non-call, but it only served as motivation for overtime.

“I was just happy to get to keep playing, get four more minutes,” Fair said.

Fair and his teammates will see plenty of more minutes today as they are back in action at Audubon at for a noon tip.