Newport stuns Manila, 49-47

By DAVID PIERCE

Osceola Times

MT. VIEW – The Manila Lions seemed to be the odds-on favorite, to not only defeat Newport in the 3A Region 2 semifinals, but capture the regional crown, too.

The Lions were riding a nine-game win streak which had seen them win by an average margin of 20 points. In addition, MHS had defeated this same Greyhounds squad by 30 points earlier in the season.

Yep, seemed likely Newport was going to be the 10th straight opponent to fall to the Lions.

Oops, someone forgot to share the script with Newport’s Johnathan Moore.

Moore, who hadn’t scored a point through the first 30 minutes of the game, scored eight of his nine in the final 23 seconds as Newport stunned Manila, 49-47, Friday.

His seventh and eighth points came at the buzzer when he took an inbounds pass, dribbled to the corner and lofted a high-arcing shot which drew nothing but net and propelled the Hounds to the upset.

Moore had sank back-to-back threes from an identical spot on the right wing which measured close to 25 feet from the basket. The latter tied the scored at 47-47 with less than 10 seconds remaining.

As Manila Luke Kirk received the ensuing inbounds pass, he began dribbling up court, slipped and fell near the right baseline. This resulted in a whistle for traveling.

The turnover set the stage for the Moore last second heroics.

Manila (26-5) had led by as many as 12 points on three occasions throughout the game. In fact, they had led all but 1:20 of the contest with Newport’s last lead at 4-3 just three minutes into the semifinal matchup.

The final double-digit margin came just as the fourth quarter opened when Jaron Burrow swished a three with 7:32 remaining in the game. The Lions led, 38-26, at that point.

It was an uncharacteristic game for the senior sharpshooter who had just eight points in the game, which included only two three-pointers.

Manila was just 2-of-9 from the field down the stretch with four turnovers after committing just 11 in the previous three quarters.

Five of Manila’s final nine points came from the free throw line and all but one of the team’s nine points were scored by Brayden Nunnally.

Nunnally scored a game-high 29 points accounting for 62 percent of the Lions scoring. He was a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line.

His two free throws with 13 seconds remaining lifted the Lions to a three-point lead at 47-44.

No other Lion player reached double figures with only Rex Farmer, Kirk and Luke Beach getting into the scoring column besides the Manila senior tandem of Nunnally and Burrow.

Kylan Crite led Newport (15-11) with 14 points while dishing out two assists and collecting three steals.

Demetric Denton tallied 10 points and seven rebounds and 6-6 Isiah Kendall scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Manila shot only 37 percent from the field, while the Greyhounds hit on 49 percent of its attempts. Newport committed 24 turnovers which included seven Lion steals, while MHS had 15 miscues.

The Hounds advanced the finals against fellow second seed Osceola, while Manila was relegated to the consolation game against Rivercrest.