Zimbro lifts Lecanto with buzzer-beater

By DAWN REISS
Published February 17, 2005

INVERNESS - Lecanto's Drew Zimbro scored 24 Wednesday night, but the only shot that really mattered was the last one.

With the game tied at 59 and 8.4 seconds left on the clock, Zimbro took the ball from out of bounds. He gutted through a maze of defenders to put up a buzzer-beater jumper en route to a 61-59 win against Springstead.

As the shot sank, with no time left on the clock, Zimbro pumped his fist while his teammates rushed to him in center court.

"I saw that sparkle in his eye," junior forward Eddie Buckley said. "And I knew he had it down."

Lecanto coaches agreed there wasn't anyone else they would rather have taking that shot then Zimbro. Zimbro wouldn't want it any other way.

"I told myself that I'm not going home like that," said Zimbro, a 6-foot-5 senior forward.

Led by Zimbro, who scored 17 of his 24 in the first half, Lecanto took an early lead and padded its spread by as many as 24 points. Springstead came out after the break and started hitting shots, scoring 20 in the third quarter with the help of James Kaczynski and Jeff Haynes, who each scored six in that quarter.

By the fourth quarter, Lecanto was in trouble as Springstead's Kaczynski hit a jumper to cut the deficit to 59-56. An AB Rodriguez jumper put the Eagles within one.

Sean Driscoll followed with a free throw to tie the score at 59.. His missed second shot gave Summers a chance to tie it after a Joel Eaton foul on the rebound, but Summers missed.

It looked like the game was Springstead's or would go into overtime when Rodriguez was called for a double dribble and the ball went back to Lecanto for Zimbro's winner.

"We survived," coach Chris Nichols said. "Everything we did well in the first half we didn't in the second, but I'll take it."

INVERNESS - J.D. Hoglund hit a 3-point shot at the buzzer to give Citrus a 50-49 win.

The second-seeded Hurricanes (17-6) ended the season for seventh-seed Crystal River (10-15). Citrus faces third-seed Groveland South Lake (14-12) on Friday night.

South Lake downed Central (7-19) in the second game of the night. Top-seeded Leesburg faces Lecanto on Friday night.

Hoglund's buzzer-beater frustrated the Pirates.

Eric Nowak scored six in the quarter and led his team in scoring with 14 points.

Walter Howard led Citrus with 15 points.

"He's (Hoglund) made a lot of last-second shots over the years," Citrus coach Tom Densmore said.

"Crystal River played a great game. They fought with everything they had. (Hoglund) hits them out there. He shoots about 55 percent (for 3-point goals). People don't realize how good he is. From (junior varsity) on up, he's won a lot of ball games at the end. That was the last shot we had. I'm just glad it went in."

"We controlled the tempo," Crystal River coach Tony Stukes said.

"We played an excellent second half. We knew (Hoglund) was a good shooter. It's just the way it falls."

[Last modified February 17, 2005, 01:22:08]