By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
CARBONDALE – Jaymire Allen missed shots and missed out on playing time during the first 25 minutes Tuesday night.
With Carbondale’s unbeaten record and a berth in the final of the 50th annual Pete Turonis/NBT Bank Classic on the line, Allen would not and could not miss.
Allen scored 14 of his 20 points in the final 7 minutes, including the winning free throws with 3 seconds left, to rally Carbondale for a 49-48 victory over Mid Valley in the second game of a doubleheader.
Two fouls put Allen on the bench for the start of the second quarter. He took a seat again for the last 3:28 of the third quarter after a technical foul, which also counted as his fourth personal foul.
When he returned, with Carbondale trying to work back from facing its largest deficit of the game, Allen missed his first shot of the fourth quarter.
At that point, Allen was 3-for-12 from the floor with misses on all four 3-point attempts and the Spartans led, 40-32, after being in front by as many as nine late in the third.
Allen made his last nine shots, five from the floor and four from the line.
“He was having a little bit of a rough time, but sometimes big players come up at big times in games,” Carbondale coach Tom Mauro said. “The kids held their heads together and finished it out.”
Allen hit both ends of a one-and-one for the tying and winning points.
The foul shots were challenging because of the situation. There was a different type of degree of difficulty to some of his other shots as he scored the first four and last six points of an 11-0 Carbondale run to start the fourth quarter.
Allen drilled a shot from just inside the arc on the right wing to pull the Chargers within, 40-39, with 5:23 left.
Then, still playing with four fouls, he stood his ground 16 seconds later to draw a charge on Mid Valley’s Danny Nemitz, the game’s top scorer with 21 points.
Allen went right back down the floor, used a spin move to get from the wing to a few feet from the basket, then finished with a fadeaway jumper over a double-team from Mid Valley’s best two players, Nemitz and Ricky Vinansky.
That move and Allen’s first two free throws of the night put the Chargers up 43-40 with 4:14 left.
The game, however, was far from decided.
Nemitz forced the first of three late ties with a 3-pointer and the lead changed hands four times in the last 1:31.
Vinansky’s two free throws with 53.6 seconds left gave Mid Valley its last lead, 48-47.
The win puts Carbondale one game away from its first Turonis title since 2009.
Carbondale has won the tournament, named after its late coach, 17 times.
Valley View, the other finalist, has won the most times with 19, but the Cougars will be looking for just their second since 2011.
Carbondale took care of the team that has dominated since then.
Mid Valley came in as defending champion and had won seven of the previous nine titles.
Carbondale has now won its first seven games, surpassing its win total from all of last season. The Chargers handed Mid Valley (5-2) its second loss and will try to do the same to Valley View (6-1) in Thursday’s championship game.
Valley View will be trying to knock off its second straight unbeaten after pummeling Lakeland, 57-29, in an opener that was not that close.
Lakeland (5-1) will play Mid Valley for third place in Thursday’s 6 p.m. opener.
Allen also had nine rebounds while leading Carbondale into the final.
Darryl Bennett used a series of drives to the basket to also hit five straight shots at one point while adding 15 points and 3 steals.
“We came in with a different attitude this season,” Bennett said. “We wanted to win. We wanted to prove to everybody that we’re different, so ‘let’s put in the work in the offseason and let’s go out and shock people’ like we did tonight.”
Nemitz had 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals to go along with his 21 points. Vinansky added 13 points.
Carbondale held Mid Valley to 2-for-11 shooting while forcing four turnovers to take a 13-6 lead after one quarter.
Mid Valley seemed to have taken control of the game in the middle quarters.
Nemitz went 4-for-4 from the floor and line while scoring 12 points in the second quarter. He scored the last six points of the half for a 24-20 lead.
Mid Valley had an 18-7 scoring advantage in the second quarter, but Carbondale came up with that same advantage in the fourth to pull out the win.
“It was win or go home, basically,” Bennett said. “We played together. We played as one. That was the biggest thing.
“We played defense; we played offense; and, we looked good.”
Valley View 57, Lakeland 29
Eli Yusavage scored 17 points and dished out 5 assists to lead Valley View, which overwhelmed Lakeland from the start of the first game.
The Cougars built leads of 11-2 after one quarter, 34-10 at halftime and 50-17 through three quarters.
Kyle Rupp added 12 points and 8 rebounds. Taheed Jewell also had eight rebounds.
L.V. Pegula and Connor Hilling made four steals each.
