What began as a comedy of errors for the Francis Scott Key boys basketball team last night ended as a gripping drama.
Down by 21 early in the second quarter against visiting Smithsburg, the Eagles, behind center Chris Bassler's 28 points, stormed back in the second half, pulling to within a point down the stretch before falling, 72-67, in a Monocacy Valley Athletic League game.
After giving a command performance in the second half - outscoring the favored Leopards, 38-27 - over the final 15 minutes, the Carroll County team was left in a familiar role, falling to 0-3 for the young season.
"It's good to come back and end on a good note, but obviously it's not what we wanted," Bassler said. "This is three in a row, and we're trying hard to get that first 'W.' We've got to get that monkey off our back."
At times early in the game, however, that monkey seemed to be more of a gorilla.
The Eagles' guards couldn't seem to get a grip on the ball, time and again committing turnovers in the face of pressure. Key turned the ball over 13 times in the first quarter alone, and 34 times for the game.
Led by Ryan MarQuiss (19 points), David Gouff (14) and Corey Brown (12), the Leopards (1-1) took command of the game at the outset, building a 33-12 lead after the first 9:24.
"We tried to pressure the ball and get some easy baskets," Smithsburg coach Eric Gerber said. "We did an excellent job of that in the first quarter. It was by far the best quarter we've played this year."
From then on, however, the game belonged to the Eagles.
Paced by the 6-foot-5 Bassler and teammates Matt Baile (12 points) and Eric Gildersleeve, who scored all 11 of his points in the third quarter, Key began to cut away at the lead.
"We seem to have a bad habit starting slow, and it happened again tonight," Bassler said. "We just went in the locker room, coach kind of calmed us down and we kind of got in the flow of the game a little bit."
After pulling to within 14 at halftime, Gildersleeve gave the Eagles another boost by scoring nine in the first 2:53 of the third quarter, and Bassler's three-point play near the end of the quarter cut the lead to single digits.
Midway through the fourth, Josh Rutter's three-pointer from the corner made it 60-57, and, with Smithsburg struggling at the foul line, Bassler's layup with 2:16 left cut the lead to a point.
After missing nine of their first 13 foul shots of the second half, however, the Leopards ended the game by hitting six of eight over the final 1:04.
"That was a big scare. Give FSK credit - they climbed back into it," said Gerber, who felt that his team had a mental letdown after grabbing the big early lead.