It mattered little to Coulter that his team was playing Westminster Academy from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with three big-time prospects and one of the top 10 sophomores in the country. It didn’t matter that they had played the night before.
Because, especially against big-time competition in the Beacon Orthopaedics Flyin’ To The Hoop, not getting back on defense to give up basket after basket in transition, showing frustration through poor body language and trailing by 18 points at halftime isn’t Alter basketball.
“I said it’s not who we are,” Coulter said. “I said you’ve got Alter on your chest, you play with some pride. You’re not competing.”
Coulter recognized his team in the second half. The Knights rallied with a 3-point barrage, took their first lead with more than five minutes left on an R.J. Greer 3-pointer and led four more times. But the gutty performance came up one shot short when Greer’s shot at the buzzer hit the rim and Westminster escaped with a 72-71 victory.
“Coach got on us,” senior Gavin Leen said. “We were flat-footed, a little timid, but he just told us it was our time. Go in there, doesn’t matter what happens at the end, just give it your all and the score will take care of itself.”
The Knights (10-2) had 3.6 seconds to win the game, and Coulter turned to a play that has worked many times, including recently on their holiday trip to Hilton Head, South Carolina. That time it produced a foul and three made free throws by Greer to force overtime that led to victory.
Brady Conner threw an inbounds pass from in front of the Alter bench to Charlie Uhl along the baseline on the other side of the basket. Uhl then passed to Greer on the left wing for the shot.
The Knights scored 45 points in the second half and were led by Leen with 23 and Greer with 19. Leen made three 3s, Greer made five and the Knights were 16 of 37 from 3-point range. With the size of Westminster, they had to be hitting from deep.
By the 4:11 mark of the third the Knights had made a game of it with a 13-2 run to start the half that cut the lead to 46-40. They trailed 55-52 entering the fourth.
“They came out and they looked like a totally different team the second half,” Coulter said. “That’s the team that I recognize – when they get after it they can beat anybody. I really feel that way, especially if we’re hitting shots.”
While the shots were falling and the Knights were stopping fast breaks and forcing Westminster to run its half-court offense, there was one thing the Knights couldn’t stop: Westminster’s big and physical presence on the offensive glass.
Westminster grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, won the rebound battle 41-21 and scored three times in the final minutes on putbacks.
“If it wasn’t for offensive rebounds,” Coulter said, “I think we would’ve won the game.”
Still, the Knights proved something to themselves with the comeback as Coulter continues to push them to be the team for four quarters that he expects.
“It just makes an expectation for us,” Leen said. “We’ve got to come out every single game like that, and we’ll be a championship team for sure. It’s good to know how we can play.”
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