Boys' Varsity Basketball vs Trinity-Pawling School

Score/Result: 53-51 W

Saturday, January 30, 2010—Trailing by a point with 21 seconds remaining, Chris Evans hit both ends of a one and one to lead Taft to an emotional 53-51 comeback victory over Trinity Pawling.  After Evans hit the two clutch free throws, Jared Jackson blocked a piece of TP's attempt to regain the lead and Jeff Tagger would gain control of the loose ball.  Tagger was then fouled, hit two FT's, and stole the inbound pass.  After being fouled again, Tagger hit two more FT's to put the game out of reach and sent a spirited crowd into a jubilant celebration.

Trinity Pawling controlled play for the first 20 minutes of the game.  The Pride held an 8 point lead at the half and extended their advantage to 12 early in the second period.  After a timeout, the Rhinos picked up the defensive pressure and changed the flow of the game.  In the second half, TP would only hit 8 of 29 (28%) field goal attempts.  Slowly the Rhino offense chipped away at the lead with big buckets coming from Evans, Larry Green, Matt McLaughlin, and Keefer Rafferty.  With co-captain Greg Nicol missing his second consecutive game, Jan Akkan again gave the team solid minutes off the bench.  Evans finished with 25 points and 8 rebounds.

Taft will head to Hotchkiss on Wednesday (2:30) looking to build on their current five game winning streak.