Sylijah Davis sank three free throws with under three seconds remaining to lift Glendale past Republic 66-65 in the third-place game of the Blue and Gold Tournament on Tuesday in Springfield.
Republic held a 64-59 lead in the final minute before Davis scored Glendale’s final seven points. After making a free throw and a 3-pointer to cut the Republic lead to 64-63, Davis drew a foul on a 3-point attempt just before the buzzer. He converted all three attempts to seal the victory for the Falcons. A half-court shot by Govan clanged off the backboard.
“You’ve got to make free throws. You’ve got to finish plays on the defensive end and you can’t allow the end of the game to come down to the referees being involved,” said coach Tim Brown. “We always say control the controllables, and there were some controllables that we didn’t completely control down the line.”
The loss spoiled a big comeback for Republic, which had trailed by double digits in the first half. Glendale used a 10-0 run in the first quarter to build a 19-8 lead. Joelle Rover powered the Falcons early, scoring 17 of his game-high 28 points in the first half to give Glendale a 31-25 advantage at halftime.
“I thought our hearts were in the right spot. We just dug ourselves in a hole and dug ourselves out,” Brown said. “Our kids stayed the course and put ourselves in a position to be in a pretty good spot.”
Republic surged in the third quarter, outscoring Glendale 22-13 to take control. AJ Uhl led the Tigers with 21 points. Trenten Coleman gave Republic its first lead of the night at 37-36 with two free throws. Moments later, Keiran Govan jumped a passing lane for a steal and took it coast-to-coast for a layup, highlighting a run that put the Tigers in control briefly.
Govan finished with 16 points for Republic.
The Tigers extended their lead with a 7-0 run bridging the third and fourth quarters, building a 52-44 advantage. Despite the deficit, Davis kept Glendale close, scoring 18 points on the night, including the decisive flurry in the closing seconds. Republic missed several opportunities to put the game away.
“We’ve got to cut out empty possessions,” Brown said. “We had a five-point lead and we had I think three or four straight trips where we had empty possessions, whether it be a turnover here, a bad shot there, and they were just self-inflicted.”
The game turned on a foul as Davis pulled up from about 25 feet away. AJ Uhl extended a hand to disrupt the shot, and caught Davis’s fingertips, triggering the final foul call and setting up the decisive free throws.
Score by quarters
Glendale 19 12 13 22 — 66
Republic 11 14 22 18 — 65
Republic scoring
AJ Uhl 21, Keiran Govan 16, Brody Blades 9, Braxton Lundberg 9, Trenten Coleman 8, Chase Connell 2.
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