On Tuesday evening, the Central Bears (13-4) completed the comeback against the Springstead Eagles (10-7) to take the 68-64 victory at John J. Sedlack Court. Head Coach Matthew McGarry and the Eagles had recovered nicely since a late loss to the Mavericks during their holiday tournament. After winning a trio of games by double digits, the visitors would again fall victim to a late rally by an elite competitor. This time, the Bears were on deck and Head Coach Matt Zandecki’s squad rode an incendiary second half to erase a 14-point deficit on senior night.
“Springstead played awesome and punched us in the mouth[…]” Coach Zandecki said. “They did not want to lose to Springstead on senior night. They stopped pointing fingers after half,” the Bears’ coach said of his players resolve following halftime.
After the introduction and honoring of the seniors, the game tipped off with Senior Austin Nicholson drawing first blood for the Eagles. The opening minutes were naturally close as each team jockeyed for position. Then, Springstead Senior Nick Cordero began to put some distance between the two squads. He scored 5 of his team-high 15 points in the span of 30 seconds in the first quarter. A pair of free throws and a shot from downtown gave the visitors an eight-point lead with under four minutes to play in the opening period.
Bears Senior Jeroen “JD” Watson would help to reduce the deficit to six heading into the second as he logged six points and a block in the first frame. The second stanza was heavy on threes for Springstead. Junior Ryan Sayre and Sophomore Sam Franco combined to knock down four of five shots from beyond the arch for the visitors in the second alone. This gave the Eagles the convincing 41-27 lead heading into the intermission.
After the break, it was a very different game. Though Central’s coach “thought we did not face adversity well” in previous moments, the Bears were “able to go on a run” coming out of halftime. This allowed the home team to wrestle momentum from the Eagles throughout the third. However, it would not be until late in the matchup that Central would gain the lead and keep it.
Central’s furious comeback started in earnest at the beginning of the third quarter. Within 3:22 of game time, the Bears had erased all but two points of their deficit. This was thanks to 4 points from each of the Seniors Tykel Williams, David Villarroel, and Braden Joyner in this span. A pair of steals by the Bears were parlayed directly into scores by Villarroel and Joyner during the stretch as well. The Eagles did not go quietly, though. They battled and extended their lead back out to six by the end of the penultimate period.
Despite this, a cold streak that lasted for much of the final frame would doom the Red, White, and Blue. After a short two-pointer from Senior Isaiah Lawrence, Springstead would only score one more basket until the final 23 seconds of the game. A 16-2 run over 7:18 of the last quarter was led by Villarroel who nabbed 7 crucial points down the stretch. His trey gave the Bears their first lead with roughly 3 minutes to go while his pair of free throws gave his squad the 5-point lead with 22 seconds remaining. Joyner, who played in his 100th game on Tuesday, also sank four shots from the charity stripe in the final seconds to fend off a last-second rally by the Eagles.
Looking forward to their next matchups, the Eagles will try to get back into a rhythm when they travel to take on the Nature Coast Tech Sharks on Friday. The Bears will hope to finish the final stretch of their season as strong as the first when they host the Hernando Leopards. Getting players back from injury will be paramount. “We got to get healthy,” Coach Zandecki said. When players like Sophomore Ethan Bergantino return to the lineup, Zandecki’s group will hope to be deep enough for a playoff run.
