DIVISION II-AA : Gray Helps Eliminate Woodbridge

Woodbridge lived the dream for 39 minutes, but it could not take care of the ball or stop Riverside J.W. North’s Edward Gray in the last minute. The result was a 60-58 loss to top-seeded and undefeated J.W. North on Tuesday night in the second round of the Division II-AA playoffs.

“I asked them before the game to play as hard and they and go out and shock the world,” Woodbridge Coach John Halagan said. “I told them before ‘Ohio State beat Indiana. Figure it out.’ ”

The unseeded Warriors (13-13) almost did. They led throughout and had a four-point advantage with a 1:33 left, before Gray went to work.

After missing nearly everything he shot for three quarters, Gray, a 6-foot-3 swingman, began to find his range late in the fourth quarter. He hit two jumpers early in the fourth then made a steal and hit an 18-footer to make it 55-53. After Arash Ghazinoor sunk one of two free throws, Demond Jackson hit his fourth three-pointer of the game to tie it, 56-56, with a minute left.

Woodbridge immediately came down and turned the ball over when John Florance, a reserve who contributed 14 points and five rebounds, dropped an easy pass out of bounds. J.W. North held the ball until Shea Stone slapped Gray on the arm with 14 seconds left.

Gray swished both free throws to put J.W. North (27-0) up 58-56. Then, Gray swiped the ball from Stone at the free throw line, dribbled the length of the court and unleashing a flying slam to put the game away.

Gray, who has signed a letter of intent to play at Tennessee, finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and six steals.

“They say a shooter never gives up and never loses his confidence,” Gray said. “Shooting is really all about confidence.”

And Woodbridge, though battling against a more athletic J.W. North team, had it most of the night. The Warriors took a 15-7 lead after a quarter before falling behind 35-29 at halftime. But pulled to 47-45 after three quarters on the three-point shooing of Ghazinoor (16 points, three threes) and Gig Movalia (14 points, two threes).

Gray and Jackson played right into Woodbridge’s hands by continuing to shoot three-pointers as 6-7 Orie Benjamin (14 points, seven rebounds) and 6-5 Jason Essex (two points, two rebounds) cried for the ball inside.

Ghazinoor hit another three-pointers and Florance nailed an 18-footer to put Woodbridge ahead 50-47. Woodbridge could have helped itself at the free-throw line, but it missed five of seven down the stretch.

“It’s pretty fitting that our last game turns out like this,” Halagan said. “So many of our games in the Sea View League came down to one shot or one call.”

Or in this case, one player--Gray.

“You can tell why Gray’s a Division I player,” Halagan said. “He wanted the ball at the end.”