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  High school basketball is a game of 32 minutes. Therefore, in a contest where neither team’s score surpasses that number, things could be ugly. However, Hanover sophomore Greg Lewis saw nothing but beauty in the closing seconds of Friday night’s home matchup with cross-county rival Lee-Davis.

  Trailing the scrappy Confederates’ squad 25-27 with :33.5 on the clock, Lewis was the go-to guy for Hanover head coach Troy Manns. “I had just gotten on him earlier about not being tough enough and being a 10th grader,” Manns said. Therefore the coach told Lewis exactly what he needed his guard to do when he came off a screen from Dylan Cole in the designed play. “When you turn the corner you’re either going to have to make the basket or get fouled, either/or. Now you can’t come up empty.’”

  “We knew the play we had to run,” Lewis said. “All we had to do was go out and execute.” Given the ‘either/or’ option by his coach, Lewis instead did both.  Driving down the right side of the lane to score the tying basket Lewis drew a foul on Confederates’ senior Garrett Joyner. The ensuing free throw put Hanover ahead 28-27 from where they held on to win the low-scoring contest. 

  Lewis knew he could perform when counted upon but did he think 28 points would be enough to win? All he could do was laugh.

  Lee-Davis had a shot to win the game in the final seconds. After calling a timeout with 26.1 to play, Lee-Davis head coach Tripp Metzger was forced to use a second when things went awry and Lewis deflected the ball out of bounds in front of the Confederates’ bench. With :04.8 to play, the inbounds went to senior Garrett Joyner who got an open shot over Danny Trsic, but it came up short.

  Metzger said the first option was to go to Chris Cook on the opposite baseline or Greg Frame popping out on the wing. Joyner was the third option when the other two were covered. However, with the clocking ticking down Metzger believes the moment got the better of Joyner. “He was supposed to look back, Cook coming around the top of the key and Greg sliding up,” Metzger said. “But I think just the excitement and the pressure, he’s just a kid, he took the shot. Not a bad shot. He was open, but not the guy we wanted shooting in that spot.”

  But overall, the final second lapse was one of the few setback in Joyner’s performance. “You can’t fault the kid he had a great game,” Metzger said. “He led us in rebounds.”

  Lee-Davis jumped out to an early 6-2 lead midway through the first on a pair of free throws from Travis Abele and one from Garrett which bracketed a left-wing three from Cook who led all scorers with 13 points.

  Due to the frantic Confederates’ defense, after scoring in the opening minute, the Hawks did not find the basket a second time until the 3:33 mark on a jumper from Brice Goode. Lewis then tied the game at six with 1:49 remaining in the first.

  A three from the left wing by Lee-Davis’ Greg Frame gave the C-Feds a 9-6 lead going into the second. Cook added his second three to open the period then scored underneath to give the Confederates’ the largest lead of the game by either team, 14-6. However, Lee-Davis only scored once more in the half and Hanover went on a 6-2 run to trim the deficit to 16-12 heading into the locker room.

  The Hawks’ run was capped by a dunk of frustration from center Dylan Cole, who Lee-Davis neutralized by limiting him to three points in the contest.

  “We were throwing a lot of help-side over on Dylan’s side,” Metzger said. “We were going to make them shoot outside and we weren’t going to let them beat us inside.”

  Manns said Lee-Daivs’ defensive efforts against Cole showed the area where his star player needs to improve. “They were being physical with him and it’s difficult for him,” Manns said. “When he’s aggressive going across the lane he picks up a lot of cheap fouls. And when he’s not being aggressive he gets pushed around and nothing’s really called. He has to learn the line in between that.”

  Even though he was ineffective on offense, Cole made his presence felt in other aspects of the game with seven rebounds and two big blocks. “He carried us defensively tonight,” Manns said. 

  A miserable third quarter on offense was the Confederates’ undoing. Lee-Davis opened the period with a steal and layup by Joyner but then did not score again in the quarter.

  Meanwhile, Hanover was just effective enough to take advantage. Danny Trsic scored on a put-back of a Yeager miss to get the Hawks going and a three from the top of the key by Yeager pulled Hanover within one at the 3:22 mark, 18-17. Yeager then tied the game with 1:20 left in the period by hitting one-of-two free throws.  With :32 left in the third, Lewis stroked an eight-foot jumper to give the Hawks their first lead since the opening seconds of the game.

  Hanover led, 20-18 going into a see-saw battle throughout the fourth and with 5:10 to play, a put-back by Yeager and two free throws from Drew Cryster (6 points) gave Hanover a 25-23 lead.

  But Lee-Davis answered. A free throw from Cook was followed by a three from the top of the key by Travis Abele to put the Confederates out front, 27-25 with 1:57 to play.

  Lee-Davis had several opportunities to widen the margin in the final two minutes but could not capitalize. With one minute to play the Confederates got three consecutive shots at the goal and came away empty before the ball was knocked out of bounds by Hanover; only to perform a repeat on the ensuing inbounds. 

  Then with :46.9 to play, the Confederates had opportunity slip them by again when Phillip Berry drove into the lane for what looked like an easy basket. However, Cole made one of Hanover’s biggest plays of the game by stepping into the lane and drawing a charge.

  Lewis then worked his magic to give Hanover the win.

  Though pleased with his team’s grittiness in the loss, Metzger was not so thrilled with their offense. “You shoot 5-for-36 from two, you’re not going to win too many games,” he said. “To have a shot at the end there is all you can ask for.”

For Manns, the low-scoring contest did not come as a surprise. “Cross-town rivalry, you know it’s going to be strange,” he said. “Weird things happen. It’s funny, in these type of games you usually shoot really, really well or really, really poorly. I’m just glad we could make a few shots at the end.”