East Ridge’s Tyrone Martin passes during Friday night’s District 6-AA quarterfinal at Red Bank.With its season on the line, the East Ridge boys’ basketball team trailed for all but 30 seconds – and was behind by double digits for much of the night – in Friday’s District 6-AA quarterfinal at Red Bank.
The visiting Pioneers led for the most important 30 seconds, however.
A strong fourth quarter helped them close the gap, and they hung within a basket over the final three minutes until Sam Garmany nailed a 3-pointer with 30 seconds remaining to give his team its first lead. As it had throughout the fourth, the East Ridge defense put the clamps on the Lions in the closing seconds and the Pioneers pulled off a 44-42 win to extend their postseason and eliminate the tournament hosts.
The Pioneers advanced to Saturday’s semifinals at Red Bank, where they will face top-seeded Brainerd at 7:30 p.m. Howard plays Tyner in the earlier boys’ semifinal at 4:30, with the winners advancing to Tuesday’s title game at Red Bank.
“We knew if we could just step it up on defense and move the ball to find the open shooters that we could come back,” said Garmany, who finished with eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers. “It all started with our defense, because once we scored a few times off of turnovers, that really got us going.