skip navigation

Charles, Holy Family escape USciences in OT, 69-66

12/18/2014, 11:00pm EST
By Tom Reifsnyder
Reggie Charles

Holy Family redshirt junior Reggie Charles led his team in scoring with 20 points in Wednesday’s win over USciences. (Photo: Josh Verlin)

Tom Reifsnyder (@tom_reifsnyder)

After his team trailed for a majority of a CACC South road matchup with University of the Sciences, Reggie Charles had a chance to give Holy Family the lead in the final 12 seconds of regulation.

However, Charles seemed to be the only person in the gym unaware of that chance.

“In that situation I thought we had the game up and we were already winning so I didn’t want to take the chance of taking a contested layup, miss, and they rebound it,” Charles said. “So I wanted to dribble the clock out, until I realized it was a tie ballgame.

“I almost made ‘Not Top Ten’ but we got the win though; my teammates had my back.”

Holy Family ultimately prevailed in overtime, defeating USciences 69-66 on Wednesday night at the Bobby Morgan Arena.

Despite coming away with the victory, Charles, who led his team with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting, wasn’t exactly thrilled with his contribution.

“I definitely felt like it wasn’t one of my better performances even though the numbers might say otherwise,” he said. “My job is not to turn the ball over; I had six today.

“That’s probably like four too many, but I made enough plays at the end to get this win so I’m definitely happy about that.”

Not very often do you hear a player criticize himself after scoring 20 points in a victory over a conference rival, but head coach R.C. Kehoe couldn’t agree more with his redshirt junior.

“Reggie has been…not good, he’s been great up until tonight. You look at the numbers and people say, ‘Well coach you’re crazy, Reggie Charles was terrific.’

“No, Reggie Charles was awful tonight. He just happened to make enough plays for us to win the game. And if he was focused, it’s probably not a three-point game.”

It’s pretty clear that Kehoe has lofty expectations for Charles, who is currently averaging 16 points per game through the first ten contests of the season. Charles, however, isn’t the only member of the Tigers that Kehoe has held to a high standard this season.

Holy Family’s incredibly tough early season schedule has put pressure on each player to perform at their very best.

After failing to acquire an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament in 2013-14, Kehoe made a bold decision in hopes of improving his postseason chances going forward.

“This year, I went out with my assistant Ryan Haigh and we scheduled the most difficult schedule in the country,” he said. “You can add up the wins and losses, you can look at our non-conference schedule; it’s ridiculous.

“We just lost at the buzzer to the number one team in the country.”

Kehoe is referring to the team’s 89-86 loss to No. 1 West Liberty University this past Sunday in West Liberty, West Virginia.

Holy Family’s only other defeat came against Merrimack College at the Bentley Tip-Off Classic on Nov. 14; the team’s first game of the season.

Since their first loss, Kehoe’s squad is 8-1 with quality wins over formidable D-II opponents such as Philadelphia University, Bowie State and, as of tonight, USciences.

Although they’ve certainly played some tough opponents thus far, Holy Family’s matchup with USciences this Wednesday may have been its most meaningful of the season.

The two teams came into the game tied for first place in the CACC’s South Division, both sporting 3-0 marks in conference play.

Early on, it looked as if USciences was going to get the best of Holy Family, as the Devils held a 36-22 advantage with under three minutes remaining in the first half.

The game tightened up in the final two minutes of the half, but USciences still remained ahead at the midway point, 37-30.

Senior guard and two-time CACC Player of the Year Garret Kerr led the Devils in scoring with 12 points at the half while junior guard Dylan Kerwin knocked down 3-of-4 three-pointers en route to 11 points; he would finish with 17.

Holy Family carried its late first half momentum straight into the second half as the Tigers went on a 13-8 run to cut USciences’ lead to just two points, 45-43, with 13 minutes remaining in regulation.

Six minutes later, Holy Family would capture its first lead since the opening minutes of the game on a layup from senior guard Xavier Williams with 7:33 remaining (53-51). Williams would finish with 14 points on 3-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc.

Holy Family maintained its slim advantage for nearly the entire remainder of the second half until Kerr, who finished with a monster double-double (24 points, 16 rebounds), knocked down a three-pointer with 22 seconds remaining to give USciences a 63-61 advantage.

Although the crowd reacted in awe of Kerr’s heroic shot, Kehoe wasn’t the least bit surprised.

“It’s Garrett Kerr; that’s what he does,” he said. “I don’t know what to say, it’s just I knew when he touched the ball it was going in.

“I had no doubt it was going in, just like I’m sure he had no doubt it was going in.”

Kerr had little time to enjoy his clutch shot as Charles came down and scored on the ensuing possession to tie the game, 63-63.

On the very next play, USciences junior Wes Kerr turned the ball over, giving Holy Family a chance to take the lead with 5 seconds remaining. However, this opportunity was ultimately squandered by Charles’ mental blunder, which led to an intentional foul by USciences to stop the clock and a Holy Family timeout.

Holy Family was able to get Charles a decent look from three-point range as time expired, but the shot fell off the mark.

In overtime, Holy Family jumped out to a 68-63 lead after two quick buckets and never looked back. The Tigers’ defense held USciences without a basket for the entire overtime period as the Devils went 0-for-6 from the field.

Kerr hoisted one last attempt as he pulled up from half court to send the game to double overtime, but to no avail, as USciences ultimately fell to Holy Family, 69-66.

Other key contributors for Holy Family in the victory include junior forwards Derrick Stewart and Isaiah Gans. Stewart finished with 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting while Gans added 13 in 40 minutes of action.

Up next for Holy Family (8-2, 4-0) is a matchup with Assumption College on Saturday, Dec. 20, at the East Region Challenge.

USciences (8-3, 3-1) will also return to action this Saturday as the Devils take on Georgian Court at 3 p.m.


Recruiting News:

HS Coverage:

Tag(s): Home  Division II  Tom Reifsnyder