Moon vs. Chartiers Valley Recap 1-8-19

Chartiers Valley basketball players, Jared Goldstrom and Brayden Reynolds, try to stop Moon Area basketball player, Donovan Johnson, on January 8th at Chartiers Valley High School.

Source: Pittsburgh-Post Gazette

I apologize to everyone that this article is being released late. I have been slacking a little bit; but, with the time that I had taken off, I realized that I need to get back on the grind. So, back on Tuesday Night, the Moon Area Boys basketball team was playing the Chartiers Valley Boys basketball team in a WPIAL Class 5A Section 2 game at Chartiers Valley High School. Now, this game was such a fun and intense game to watch.

If McKeesport did not play Woodland Hills and Butler did not play Pine-Richland on Tuesday night, I really think that the Moon and Chartiers Valley game would have been talked about more on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, TRIB LIVE HSSN and any other WPIAL sport media outlets. Like, this Chartiers Valley and Moon game was that good to watch.

Moon shot out of the game to begin the game as they won the opening tip off and Connor Ryan scored a quick 2 points to give Moon a 2-0 lead in the first five seconds of the game. Both teams played up tempo and committed a good amount of fouls. This was a type of game in which the referees made calls that made both teams upset. Chartiers Valley was beating Moon 17-16 at the end of the first quarter and they were beating Moon 31-30 at halftime. Moon Area senior, Connor Ryan, was balling in the first half as he scored 15 points in the first half and shot a 2-point basket as time expired in the first half. Connor was holding up a number three at the end of the first half thinking he converted a 3-point basket; but, he didn't know that his foot was in front of the three point line.

What was really interesting was that the Colts defense was able to hold Donovan Johnson to only 5 points in the first half. Moon's head coach, Adam Kaufman, must have told Johnson, during halftime that he better be playing like the Division 1 recruit that he is and score more points. Johnson scored 18 points in the second half to give him 23 on the night.

Johnson decided to take advantage of his height during the second half as he was able to dunk the ball in third quarter. He is 6'7" and when he dunked the ball in the third quarter, it seriously looked like he barely jumped at all to dunk.

At the end of the third quarter, the game was tied at 50 and all the fans watching that game knew that there had to be something big that was going to happen at the end of the game because this game was intense. The Chartiers Valley student section was getting heated late in the game when the referees made calls that did not benefit the Colts.

Moon had some good runs in the second half, Brayden Reynolds was able to score some baskets to keep the Colts in the fourth quarter, Jared Goldstrom was able to hit two 3-point shots to help tie the game at 60 with 2:14 left in the fourth quarter and Moon basketball player, Jioni Smith, was able to play at a faster and more efficient pace in the fourth quarter as he scored 11 points in the second half. Fouls happened, fans yelled, parents yelled, blocks were made, steals were forced in this game, like, it was everything you wanted to see in a basketball game.

Moon seemed to have an edge over the Colts in the second half; but, the Colts made sure the Tigers would have to keep battling in order to win this game. There was this one play that changed the whole outcome of the game and I am stunned and surprised that no one from the media commented about what happened at the end of this game. I am not joking.

So here's what happened, Moon Area basketball player, Jioni Smith, was fouled with like 12 or 13 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the score at the time was 66-64 Moon. Jioni was going to the foul line to shoot two free-throws. All Jioni had to do was make the two free throws and Moon would basically win this game. Jioni made the first free throw to give the Tigers a 67-64 lead. Guess what? Jioni missed the second free throw shot and Donovan Johnson was able to get the rebound. Here's the thing though, when Johnson got the rebound and landed his feet on the floor, his right foot stepped out of bounds. It should be the Colts ball, right? Well, the referees must have not seen Johnson stepped out of bounds because next thing you know Johnson gets his right foot back inbounds and throws a long pass to Tre Carter across the court and next thing you know, Carter scores two points with less than eight seven seconds remaining to give Moon a 69-64 lead and help seal the win for the Tigers. At the end of the game, Colts player, junior Sean Banas went to the ground and pointed at the spot that Johnson stepped out of bounds to indicate to the referees that they made the wrong call and was the reason the Colts could not have one more chance to tie the game up.

It had to be really hard for Colts fans and players to sleep last night. The Colts were robbed a chance to win. Also after the game, the police officers escorted the referees off the court as they might have been afraid that the Colts student section was going to come on the court and give the referees a handful.

The past is the past now, as yesterday the Colts defeated Central Valley by a score of 74-40. The Colts will play Montour at home tomorrow at 7:30 PM ET as they will look to win two straight games in a row. The Tigers will play Thomas Jefferson at home at 7:30 PM ET. Moon and Chartiers Valley will square off against each other, again, on Friday February 1st 2019.