(Jordan Nwora drops one of his three #BOOMS from Park's double OT win over Kearney / Photo by Larry Scheur)

 

If the Park basketball team made a New Year's resolution to continue winning, then so far – so good, as the Pioneers extended their NYS winning streak to 12 games dating back to their Federation Championship campaign last season, the longest streak of any NYSPHAA or CHSAA team.  But if Park made that resolution, it didn't include anything about waiting until the fourth quarter to turn up.

 

Jordan Nwora scored 24 of his game-high 35 points after halftime, as Park overcame an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to force overtime, and then used a second extra session to put away visiting Bishop Kearney in a high scoring thriller to get the New Year started in style, 105-96.

 

The Pioneers looked refreshed at the start of the game with Nwora bending the rim on a breakaway slam and Kyle Harris splashing three straight treys in the opening minutes, creating a quick 15-6 advantage.  However, the Kings closed the first quarter on a 14-3 run and took a 20-18 lead after eight minutes.  With the exception of a brief Park lead following a barrage of scoring from Nwora in the second quarter, the Kings remained on top of the Pioneers for the next two quarters of the game and headed to the final stanza with a 62-55 cushion on Park.  Less than two minutes after the start of the fourth quarter, the Kings reached their largest lead of the afternoon over Park, 69-58, with 6:17 to go.

 

"We were probably reaching a little bit too much on defense, we weren't helping enough, and we weren't blocking out when they were out-rebounding us for a time," Park coach Michael Battaglia said.

 

But as the Pioneers have shown before, they just need a little spark to make them explode offensively, and then the rest begins to take care of itself.  That spark came from Harris, who sank his first 3-pointer of the second half with 5:52 to go in regulation.  Harris came back with another bucket after Park got a stop to cut the deficit to six, prompting a Kings timeout.

 

"I think our team is poised," Battaglia said.   "I don't think our players get nervous when they're down – they get a little edgy in the huddles and bark at one another, but they don't play like that in the game."

 

Park came out of the timeout and used that edge to continue its run.  Nwora and Chris Efretuei scored on the next two possessions to make it a two-point game before the Kings scored again.  Then following a free throw by Hunter Anderson, the Pioneers' freshman point guard, Noah Hutchins, took the ball straight to the rack on consecutive possessions and finished strong to cap a 14-2 run in just over three minutes, and give his squad their first lead of the second half.

 

Bishop Kearney would regain a late three-point lead in the final two minutes, before Nwora tied it back up with a 3-point missile.  The Kings and Pioneers exchanged free throws in the final minutes of regulation, leaving the score tied at 77-77.  Overtime.

 

The first of two extra sessions saw Park jump on top by six points and it looked like the game was finally ending.  But Shykell Brown came off the bench for Bishop Kearney and drilled consecutive 3-pointers in less than a minute to tie the game again.  A charge called on Park's final possession and a miss from the Kings at the buzzer sent the contest to its second OT.

 

Double overtime was where Park would shine brightest all afternoon.  A corner trey from Nwora fired the Pioneers up and ignited a 13-2 run that put the necessary distance between the teams for Park to close it out.  Park took a 101-90 lead as Nwora lowered the #BOOM, two-handed, to complete the run.  The Pioneers rolled up 22 points in the second overtime and got scoring from five different players over those final four minutes. Hutchins was so clutch down the stretch, playing like a seasoned senior as he handled the Kings' pressure brilliantly and also went as perfect 6/6 from the charity stripe in OT.

 

Point Totals

Park:  Jordan Nwora 35, Kyle Harris 22, Noah Hutchins 20, Ethan Cottrell 12, Hunter Anderson 8, Chris Efretuei 8

Bishop Kearney:  Quinton Rose 21, Nahziah Carter 20, Rian Carter 18, Brian Fobbs 14, Devin Green 13, Shykell Brown 10

 

-centercourt