Ellison-Love lifts teammates when needed most

Loyalsock coach Ron Insinger kept peeking down his bench in the fourth quarter on Saturday as starting guard Antoine Ellison-Love took a rare break. The veteran coach's patience wore thin watching his team turn the ball over on back-to-back possessions.

Insinger, who reluctantly took out the exhausted Ellison-Love with 4:35 left in the fourth quarter, asked his starting point guard a final time if he was ready to return and received the green light. Only one minute of game action had eclipsed, but the couple minute breather allowed the Lancers' engineer to close out Hughesville, 72-61, in the District 4 Class AA championship game.

"I don't have much patience when we start turning the ball over and I know Hughesville is an explosive team and they can light it up," said Insinger. "I kept going to Antoine saying 'Are you ready, are you ready?' And he finally said he was ready."

The junior wasted no time proving so.

With fresh legs under him, Ellison-Love, who teammate Frankie Pagana said was dizzy at halftime and spent the past three days under the weather, scored five straight Loyalsock points and the Lancers tenuous six-point lead was back to nine with 2:41 remaining.

"The fourth quarter is crunch time and is time to take over the game," said Ellison-Love, moments before cutting the final string from the net and throwing it around his neck. "It's time for leaders to start controlling the game and make sure the game goes the way we want it to go and not let the other team dictate what is going to happen."

One Spartan tried to dictate the outcome and was nearly as spectacular as Ellison-Love - reserve guard Jordan Holmes. The junior scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, including nine straight before taking a breather, to try and ignite a fourth-quarter comeback.

The slender guard showed an array of offensive skills. He drove hard to the basket, made 3 of 4 free throws and knocked down a couple of 3-pointers.

His second 3-pointer with 2:27 remaining made it a 63-57 deficit for the second time in the quarter.

"He's one of the very few fearless people we have on our entire roster," said Hughesville coach Nick Tagliaferri. "He almost single-handlely got us back in the game."

An Ellison-Love basket with under two minutes left pushed 'Sock's advantage back to nine points and then Holmes, who scored all but eight of Hughesville's 21 fourth-quarter points, finally missed a 3-pointer with 1:40 remaining.

Holmes added his final point of the quarter on a free throw with 56.1 left, making it 68-60, but Hughesville never drew any closer.

"I was trying to spark us and get us back in the game," said Holmes, "but it was a little too late."

Holmes scored all 13 of his points in the last eight minutes, while Ellison-Love scored nine of his 24 points during the same time as the two traded punches back-and-forth.

Ellison-Love added eight rebounds and six assists.

"Antoine played 31 of 32 minutes, how much guts did that kid show?" said Tagliaferri.

So much that Insinger, a coach for 35 years, said, "It was one of the most gutsy performances I've witnessed. I know how badly he was hurt and for him to come out here and pick it up another level and put that behind him... I thought that was monumental."