By Chris Kinkaid

Pontchartrain Newspapers

SLIDELL – Riverside Academy’s Herb MeGee broke a tie game by banking in an inside shot with three-seconds left in a 70-68 victory over Salmen on the road Friday.

“We practice that all of the time,” McGee said. “It’s called long drills. When you’re going to the goal and you see them step up, you just put it up. That’s what I did. He bumped me and I put it off of the glass.”

Salmen (19-6) had possession and inbounded with 54.4 seconds left. The Spartans basically played keep away before going to the bucket with an open lane at about the 10 second mark. The shot got altered by a Riverside (17-4) defender. Malik Crowfield got the rebound. McGee, who posted 12 points, dribbled down the floor before pulling up just left of the lane and banked in the short attempt. Crowfield led the Rebels with 21.

“He passed in front of me and I know he likes to shoot the three,” Riverside coach Timmy Byrd said. “But I told him to attack the rim and he did exactly what I asked. He’s a warrior. He’s a receiver on the football team. The sucker is just a warrior. He did a great job on 23 (Mike Wilson) in the second half. We told him that we’re going to win this game, he’s gotta shut him down and I thought Herb did a great job of denying him the ball.”

Following McGee’s shot, Salmen called timeout with 2.4 showing. They got a decent look, but the 3-pointer was off as the final buzzer sounded.

Salmen got off to a good start, grabbing a 17-16 with 1:49 showing in the first quarter. The Spartans capped the period by putting up five unanswered. Mike Wilson knocked down a 3-pointer before Wayne Fisher grabbed an offensive board and put it back in. It was 22-16 after one.

The Spartans extended it to 28-18 in the second, but Riverside went on a 12-0 run to go up 30-28. Von Julien, who had 14, hit a pair from the line. Crowfield pulled down an offensive rebound and got the putback. The Rebels tallied again to get it to 28-24. McGee converted a three-point play. Julien split free throw to tie it before Deuce Wallace put his club in front 30-28 with a baseline drive to the bucket.

Eric Bell, who led the Spartans with 22 points, talked about the contest and some of the little things that hurt his club.

“We gave up easy layups on the backdoors. We stepped up when we should have just stood in our position and took the charge,” Bell said.

Spartans’ coach Jay Carlin said his club played very well the first 10-12 minutes, but then got sloppy for a couple minutes and went down two.

“From that point on, it was back-and-forth the whole game. They went up five on us and our kids responded,” Carlin said. “We stayed solid on defense, but we missed a couple of free throws in some crucial situations, we missed meatball rim type layup in a crucial situation, but the kids kept fighting.”

Carlin said he was proud of the way his club performed.

“We made a lot of plays, but we had some breakdowns on defense, behind our defense where didn’t protect the goal like we needed to,” Carlin said.

Salmen led 38-36 by halftime.

Riverside went up by five a couple of times during the third period and the Rebels took a 55-53 lead to the final period.

Riverside began the fourth by putting up the first four points to make it a six-point margin, but the Spartans went on a 5-0 run. Bell hit a 3-pointer before Cody Rudolph was good on both ends of a one-and-one. Rudolph finished with 12. It was 59-58 at the 5:39 mark.

Riverside seemed to have things in hand, holding a 67-61 lead with 2:20 left, but Bell hit a trey. Wallace split from the line, but Wilson was good on both for Salmen, trimming it to 68-66 with 1:38 left. Bell came up with a steal, was fouled and made both free throws to tie it 68-68.

Riverside committed a turnover and the Spartans called timeout with 54.1 left, which set up the exciting finish.