New York school takes '04 tournament

Dayton Daily News
By Mark Gokavi
Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Gorney leads Aviators to win in consolation

VANDALIA -- In the long run, Our Savior New American and Juan Palacios were too much for Reserve Christian. But for a three-minute dash, the Vandalia Butler Student Activity Center court belonged to Demond Carter. The New York school wore down Reserve 72-55 on Monday to win the Flyin' to the Hoop bracket for a second straight year in the three-day,16-team showcase of national high school basketball talent. Palacios, a 6-foot-8 senior, scored 26 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and added five assists. But it was "Tweety" Carter who provided a glimpse of what organizers wanted to feature in the national bracket final. Unfortunately, a sizeable portion of the crowd generated for Northmont and Ottawa-Glandorf left before the fireworks.

Carter, a 5-10 guard, scored 11 straight points in about a minute to start the second half. Our Savior led 37-20 at halftime. Carter drilled a 3-pointer, got a layup off a steal and hit another 3. After a timeout, he hit another 3-pointer before a teammate made a layup. Suddenly, it was 39-33. "He's talented and he plays a lot of basketball," Our Savior coach Ronald Stelzer said. "If you leave him go, he's going to hurt you. We were just a little bit out of sorts there for awhile and he shook himself free a few times. You expect him to nail a few of those. He's too good a player not to." Carter hit his fourth 3-pointer and a teammate made one of two free throws to pull the Louisiana school within 39-37. He finished with 25 points and five assists, but shot just 9 of 28 overall and 7 of 22 from beyond the arc.

"I just know I can make that shot at any time," Carter said. "Most of the time I don't shoot that much, but coach tells me sometimes to shoot. I just didn't have a good shooting day." Our Savior shot well with Palacios and Timothy Ambrose (15 points) doing the damage. After Reserve's 17-2 run, Our Savior responded with an 18-8 surge. "I knew that if could find some energy someplace that we could make a run on them," Reserve coach Tim Byrd said. "We challenged them and they responded to the challenge and we just ran out of gas."

Contact Mark Gokavi at 225-6951.