Indians laugh last

COAL TOWNSHIP - Mount Carmel's student section had a lot of laughs calling Brent Forbes, Shamokin's burly center, Shrek, during the game between the two rivals Monday.

Funny thing, though. The big green monster usually has the last laugh in those movies.

And Forbes had the last laugh this time, too.

After making just 1-of-6 foul shots, Forbes knocked down the two that counted, with 26 seconds left in the game, breaking a 48-48 tie and the Indians held on for a 51-48 win at Shamokin.

"I told our coaches not to worry, I'll make them at the end of the game," said Forbes, who had a rough night offensively overall with just seven points but made up for it with 11 rebounds and seven assists. "I made two at the end of a district game against Danville the other year, too."

Forbes said the strain of having to bang around the boards so much inside takes its toll on him at the foul line sometimes.

"It just kind of mentally gets to me sometimes," he said. "But we're playing a lot better now as a team than we were in the beginning of the season. We can't use being young as an excuse anymore."

"Brent's been the big man for us in big games, and he's been in situations like that before," said Shamokin coach Joe Klebon, whose team improved to 10-7. "We haven't been playing real well scoring, so I was just happy to have a chance to be able to do some of the things we did at the end to win."

Mount Carmel (7-11) came out on fire, popping in four three-point shots in the first quarter on the way to a 20-11 lead against the sluggish Indians. But Tornado coach John Lazicki knew that wouldn't keep up and the Red Tornadoes didn't hit a trey the rest of the game.

"We weren't going to keep that up. We're not that kind of team," Lazicki said. "But that's not what beat us. Defensively, we had lots of lapses, especially late. We lost kids in transition and we didn't double down enough on Forbes, although we did a pretty good job on him. I will never fault my kids for not playing hard and with intensity, but it just seems like every game we have little one or two-minute lapses on defense that hurt us."

Shamokin picked up its defensive pace and held the Red Tornadoes under 10 points in both the second and third quarters, and used the occasional three and some solid play off the bench to gradually take a one-point lead, 35-34, going into the final quarter. But Klebon still wasn't happy with the Indians' failure to get to loose balls.

"They were beating us to most of those balls, and we needed to get down on the floor and dive for some balls," he said.

The Indians looked like they took control when Devon Craft knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to give Shamokin a 44-38 lead with 4:09 to play. Mount Carmel cut it back to 46-44 when Forbes came up with a big rebound and downcourt pass to Tim Bousson, who downed a well-contested layup to make it 48-44.

But the Tornadoes' Seth Scicchitano hit two foul shots with 1:10 remaining, then drove the lane for a tying basket after Forbes missed two foul shots with 1:09 to play. Shamokin called time with 42.7 seconds left, then set up an inside play to Forbes, on which he was fouled, setting up his two big free throws with 26 seconds left.

The game still wasn't decided though. Mount Carmel had a good offensive look but Scicchitano missed a 3-pointer, setting off a wild scrum for the rebound. Of all people, sophomore guard Kieran Kelley came up with the ball from the bottom of the pile. he made the first of a one-and-one on the other end, making it 51-48, but missed the second.

Mount Carmel's Mike Domaleski missed a desperation three-pointer from just over halfcourt at the buzzer.

Domaleski led all scorers with 18 points, and added seven rebounds and four blocked shots. Scicchitano scored 13 points.

Craft led the Indians with 14 points, shooting 4-for-8 from three-point range. Kelley had nine points.

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