O’Hara Downs Lew-Port to Stay Undefeated

Resiliency is a trait that every team desires; knowing that no matter how big a deficit may be, you are never out of a game.

That has been the story of this year’s Cardinal O’Hara boys basketball team, and that comeback mentality was on display once again Tuesday night.

The Hawks pulled away late on the road to pull out a 70-63 victory over Lewiston-Porter in a non-league showdown between state ranked teams.

O’Hara (14-0) set the tone early with an aggressive man-to-man defense and strong play on the glass as they closed the first quarter leading 18-12.

But, as was the case in their last match up against St. Francis, even though they led after quarter one they found themselves down at the half, this time 31-30 after Lew-Port’s Trent Scott poured in 11 points in the stanza.

However, just like the St. Francis game, they kicked it up a notch in the second half.

“We expect now to face adversity, guys to get in foul trouble, and to overcome the odds to get wins,” said Hawks coach Tony Pulvirenti. “We’ve closed a lot of games out like this, where all of a sudden the defense clicks, and we go from down two to up twelve.”

It seemed the Hawks found their breakthrough in the third as Avion Harris scored seven straight points to give O’Hara a 45-39 lead. Shortly after, Yehshua Lee buried a three-pointer to put them up 53-45.

In an instant though, the Lancers put together a swift 5-0 run to close the third, as they trailed 53-50.

Lew-Port (12-2) hung around the entire game, and even owned a few slim advantages, but it was the little things that cost them down the stretch.

“It wasn’t their first shot that killed us, it was their second, third, fourth shot,” said Lancers coach Matt Bradshaw. “O’Hara beat us probably 75% of the time to 50-50 balls, and they killed us on the boards.”

It wasn’t until there were about three minutes left in the game and O’Hara led 58-56 that they finally created separation.

Two big stops on the defensive end led to back-to-back transition slams by Haakim Siner and Jermaine Haynes which would spark a 9-0 run that gave the Hawks their biggest lead of the night, 67-56, a lead they protected until the final buzzer.

“During a timeout, we were talking about how we had to stay together as a team. We couldn’t let their little runs get to our heads,” said O’Hara senior Justin Hemphill, who capped off the game with a dunk of his own and led his squad with 20 points. “We locked down on defense, and that turned into baskets on offense.”

Despite the loss, Lew-Port’s Scott (26) and Roddy Gayle (25) combined for an impressive 51 points and a perfect ten-for-ten at the free throw line.

The Lancers look to snap their two-game losing skid against yet another tough opponent, the No. 1 Class A team in the state, the Park Pioneers on Jan. 25.