Southeast sophomore Caden Dillon shoots a free throw late in the fourth quarter of Friday’s game in Palmyra.
Tom Nader/Portage Sports

By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

With about 20 seconds on the fourth-quarter clock and his Southeast boys basketball team nursing a three-point lead, veteran head coach Matt Dillon called senior Joe Sharish over to the sideline.

He had a message for his senior forward, who was headed to the line for a pair of crucial free throws.

The thing is, Sharish actually had a message for his coach, too.

And before Dillon could even start talking, Sharish looked at Dillon and said, “Coach, I got you.”

All Dillon could do was smile, pat him on the back and realize that his message was no longer necessary.

Sharish was true to his word.

He calmly buried both of his free throws to turn the game into a two-score contest.

It was a clutch moment, but far from the only one.

Multiple Southeast players stepped up at key moments, and because of it, the Pirates captured a 67-61 Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference victory over the visiting Newton Falls Tigers.

It was a critical win for the Pirates, who kept their league-championship door open by tying the Tigers atop the standings with identical 9-2 records.

The win was big for another reason, too, as it reminded Dillon of three-year-old conversations that he had with his team when he was re-hired to take over a program in the midst of a rebuild.

“We told the kids that at some point we are going to play in some really important games against some really good teams. Teams who are well coached and deeply understand basketball,” Dillon said. “Tonight was one of those big games and Newton Falls is absolutely one of those teams. We deeply respect them. Tonight was a great program win for us.”

It was a thrilling ride to the finish line, that’s for sure.

More than you would think for it very nearly being a wire-to-wire victory.

After a fast-paced first quarter that closely resembled a 100-meter dash, the Pirates held a slight 16-14 edge.

Newton Falls (11-5, 9-2) quickly scored the first five points of the second quarter to take a 19-16 lead, but it was short lived.

The Southeast student section and cheerleaders storm the court to celebrate with the Pirates’ boys basketball team after their 67-61 victory over Newton Falls on Friday.
Tom Nader/Portage Sports

Southeast erupted for a 22-2 run the rest of the way.

The barrage began with a leaning jumper in the lane by Cohen Richardson, which was then followed up by back-to-back 3s from lefty Braedyn Walden. The eight-point swing pushed the Pirates back into the lead, 24-19.

Bradley Dillon, who scored all 16 of his points in the first half, got into the mix with a 3 of his own that made it 29-21 at the 2:55 mark.

Sharish added an offensive rebound putback, Bradley Dillon drilled another 3, as did Richardson, and the Pirates stormed into halftime with a suddenly commanding 38-21 lead.

“The type of players we have, they want to play in big games and our kids knew that tonight was a big game,” Dillon said. “They played with a lot of intensity and passion and you could see that early on.”

The Tigers brought some of that same intensity into the third quarter and found the offensive rhythm it had lost somewhere in the first half.

Newton Falls authored a 24-point third quarter that came on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range, with Leland Vargo and Dallas Dillon connecting on a pair each. The Tigers also were 4-of-5 from the line in the quarter.

It was the kind offense that would cause many teams to crumble, but on Friday, the Pirates had every answer ready. Southeast was outscored (24-18) in the quarter, but it still found enough offense at the right time to keep the Tigers from stringing together a long run.

As part of that, Richardson, who finished with a game-high 25 points, connected on two NBA-range 3-pointers. Caden Dillon also hit a 3 and Sharish found another offensive rebound putback, which helped the Pirates maintain a double-digit lead, 56-45, going into the final 8 minutes.

Newton Falls’ offensive attack — and relentless full-court pressure — continued in the fourth quarter and it pulled to as close as 64-61 on a pair of free throws by Phil Davis with 1:02 remaining. The Tigers had a chance to cut it closer on their following possession, but a missed layup turned into a Sharish rebound and his two connected free throws made it 66-61. He added another free throw moments later to complete the final score.

Sharish finished with a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. He also had three assists, two steals and a blocked shot.

“Joe is probably the nicest kid who has ever come through our program,” Dillon said. “Tonight he competed as hard as he is nice, and he was a difference-maker for us. I am extremely proud of him for how he played.”

Richardson added nine rebounds, three assists and five steals to his 25-point effort.

Caden Dillon was the floor general and had eight assists for the Pirates. He repeatedly helped diffuse the Tigers’ full-court pressure by keeping his dribble alive and working to get the Pirates’ halfcourt offense initiated.

“When you watch Caden handle pressure defense like that, you almost forget that he is still just a sophomore,” Dillon said. “I probably don’t give him enough credit for how important that is for us. He is not someone who is going to score 15 to 20 points every game, but for us to have a player score 15 to 20 points, we need him to get the ball down the court for us. I don’t give him many breaks, either, so a lot of times he has to do that when he is tired, but he always gets us set up and gets players in the right spot to make our offense work.”

The Tigers were led offensively by Davis, who scored 20 points, despite missing a large portion of the third quarter in foul trouble. Drayson Moore joined him in double figures with 11 points, while Vargo added nine points for Newton Falls, which had eight players reach the scoring column.