Trey Suttles’ eyes lit up when he heard the words come out of his coach’s mouth. Then he went to work.
The Tyner junior post player scored eight of his 15 points in overtime as the Rams handed Best of Preps tournament host Arts & Sciences its first loss of the season, 65-57. Tyner (5-2) will face Red Bank in tonight’s final.
“It was a hard game,” Suttles said. “In overtime, the coaches said, ‘Feed it to Trey,’ so I guess I put the team on my back and finished them off. It builds momentum for us the rest of the season. We had lost two of the last three, so it’s good to get a win like this.”
After the Patriots (8-1) sent the game into overtime on Alex Stallion’s drive with 16 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Tyner coach Gerald Harris decided to pound the ball inside to the 6-foot-4 Suttles. With CSAS defenders doing everything they could to try to contain Rams point guard Travis Jones, the inside was vulnerable.
After Stallion’s 3-pointer gave the hosts the early overtime lead, Suttles hit a short jumper and then made two free throws for a 55-54 lead with 2:29 remaining
Trailing by one a minute later, Suttles took a feed from the driving Jones for an easy layup to regain a lead the Rams would not lose again. Suttles was fouled seconds later after getting his 10th rebound of the game. He missed both free throws but rebounded the second and laid it in for a 59-56 lead.
CSAS missed 3-pointers on consecutive trips, and the Rams sealed the win with six free throws.
“This is a good team and this is their tournament, so of course they’re going to play hard,” Harris said. “It was going to be one of those back-and-forth games where you’re going to see what your guys are made of. We felt we were going to be stronger in the post, and those guys did a great job, like Trey and Jabrie Leverett, who came off the bench to give us a big lift.”
Jones led Tyner with 20 points, while Leverett had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Stallion topped CSAS with 20 points, Sharif Cobb adding 11.