AMHERST — Cool, reliable Honesty King made three of four foul shots in the final 27 seconds Thursday night and Elyria hung on to nip Amherst, 38-35.
That’s the most meaningful offensive fact about the kind of game spectators have come to expect when the old rivals get together for a non-conference basketball game.
But the Pioneers (9-2) also got two big defensive jobs, without which they wouldn’t have won for the ninth time in 11 games. First, Kassandra Messenger blocked an Amherst shot with three seconds to play that probably prevented the Comets from tying the score at 37.
And they got one of the area’s top individual defensive efforts of the season when Tess Sito took away the Comets’ baseline offense. Sito’s work limited Amherst’s high-scoring Courtney Jarvis to just six points, two of them foul shots.
Just one of Jarvis’s two field goals came with Sito defending her and it wasn’t Sito who put Jarvis on the line for the two foul shots.
“Coach Walsh told me she drives the baseline right-handed, that’s her main thing,” Sito said. “So every time I squared up, I squared up to where she would go right. I don’t know if she went baseline at all on me, but if she started I stopped her. That’s what I was focusing on a lot.”
Much as King was focusing at the foul line in the final half-minute.
She connected twice on a one-and-one with 27 seconds left, barely a minute after Amherst had tied the score at 35. Then with 1.6 seconds to play, she hit the first of two in the double bonus to create the final score.
“I was real nervous and I just knew I had to make them,” said King, who scored a game-high 19 points and was the only player on either side to finish in double figures. “I thought, ‘Take a deep breath and just shoot them.’ And they went in.”
The decisive defensive play was Messenger’s. Amherst, working from the left side, started to take a shot with three seconds to play. Messenger blocked it.
“They came down and we were up by two,” said Messenger. “I knew we had to get the ball back so they wouldn’t score. I was kinda scared to block it, because I didn’t want to foul them, but that’s what I had to do. If I hadn’t blocked it, she probably would have made the shot.”
Amherst, which fell behind 13-4 in the first seven minutes, fought back to tie it at 13 just over two minutes into the second quarter and trailed just 19-15 at the half. The Comets cut the Pioneers’ lead to 34-33 with just under three minutes to play and tied it at 35 on Ashley Aponte’s drive to the basket with 1:22 left.
The Comets never scored again.
“I thought that offensively we became very tentative,” said Amherst coach John Rositano, whose Comets slipped to 6-5. “We had some shots that I think normally we would have just squared up and stroked. But I tell you what, our kids defended the ball. We played unbelievable half-court defense and forced (the Pioneers) to do some things I’m not sure they wanted to do.
“I mean, that’s a very explosive team Elyria has there,” he said. “They can put up points in a bunch and to hold them to 37 or 38 points, that’s an unbelievable effort. I just told the kids this is what girls high school basketball is all about — two good teams going at it, grinding it out in front of a good crowd with a lot of interest in the game.”
The Pioneers’ King agreed with Rositano.
“Coach said they would be all up on us and be real physical,” King said. “He told us we’d have to be strong with the ball.”
Elyria coach Mike Walsh praised Sito’s defense.
“Tess is a very, very good defender,” he said. “The bonus we have this year is that in the past, Tess was a post for us and would pretty much have to guard a post. Now with Brigette (Jones) and Tai (Dotson) guarding posts, Tess can go out and guard forwards. She’s guarded point guards. She’s usually assigned to the best offensive player on the other team.”
The Pioneers’ got eight points from the 6-foot-2 Dotson and with her in the post, controlled the backboards 32-22. Aponte and Olivia Sliman each scored eight points for Amherst.

Elyria 38, Amherst 35

ELYRIA (38): Jessica Mandula 0-0-0, Kassandra Messenger 0-0-0, Darcy Warden 0-0-0, Charnele Oliver 0-0-0, Honesty King 7-5-19, Brigette Jones 2-2-6, Tai Dotson 4-0-8, Tess Sito 0-5-5, Alesha Mahone 0-0-0. Totals: 13-12-38.
AMHERST (35): Ashley Aponte 3-2-8, Brittany Cruz 2-0-5, Lizzie Soto 0-0-0, Bridget Cruz 0-0-0, Olivia Sliman 2-4-8, Miranda Szucs 1-2-4, Courtney Jarvis 2-2-6, Bridget Beury 2-0-4. Totals: 211-10-35.
Elyria    13    6  10    9 – 38
Amherst      6    9    9  11 – 35
3-point goals: Elyria 0-3; Amherst 1-8 (Brittany Cruz). Field goals: Elyria 13-35 (37.1 percent); Amherst 12-57 (21.1 percent). Free throws: Elyria 12-18; Amherst 10-12. Rebounds: Elyria 32; Amherst 22. Turnovers: Elyria 32; Amherst 18.  
Junior varsity: Amherst, 26-20.

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