The Potomac Highlands Dispatch - the online newspaper

Hartman shows guts for a little glory
Keyser's Hartman leads Golden Tornado to AMAC win
Senior overcomes close-contact defense to net 21 points
JV: Keyser controls early, wins 42-27

By The Potomac Highlands Dispatch
NEW CREEK, W.Va., Dec. 13 - No guts, no glory.

Peyton Hartman saw a little bit of the former to earn a moment of the latter on Monday while leading the Keyser Golden Tornado to a 61-54 win over visiting Fort Hill. With 3 minutes and 9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter - and the Golden Tornado and Sentinels knotted at 54 points apiece in a back-and-forth contest - Hartman was hit - hard - in the stomach by an opponent.

The contact forced a bit of Hartman's lunch to come back up and play was halted several minutes while the court was cleaned. But Hartman, who'd already scored seven points in the fourth quarter (and 10 more in the first half) wasn't about to let what one coach called a near concussion stop him.

"I got hit in the stomach real hard, so I was puking," said the 6-foot-6 senior. "I thought I was going to pass out the rest of the fourth quarter. When I got back on the court ... Coach (Gary Liston) said, 'take care of the ball and score one basket."

"I just got it into my head I needed to get my team back into the game," Hartman said.

And he did in dramatic fashion. Dustin Fertig hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:19 to play to put Keyser up 57-54 and over the next two minutes, every time Fort Hill took a bit of momentum, it was snacked right back just as quickly.

With 2:02 remaining, Sentinels senior center Michael Crabtree grabbed the offensive rebound and crashed to the floor. The official's whistle blew. Crabtree was called for traveling. Twenty-five seconds later, senior Brandon Remson managed a steal but Fort Hill failed to score any points on the play.

Fort Hill junior guard Garrett D'Atri finally got open for a shot with 33 seconds to go in the fourth quarter. D'Atri scored 15 points in the Sentinels' season-opening win against Mountain Ridge. On Monday, he was held to seven points. A long-range jumper with about half a minute to go would have pulled Fort Hill wihtin 57-56 but the ball clanged off the rim.

About a second later, D'Atri fouled to put Hartman at the free throw line. He made both to give the Golden Tornado a seemingly insurmountable 59-54 lead with 31.8 seconds left in the game.

Fort Hill coach Glenn Rice called timeout after the play. Eleven seconds later, the Sentinels turned the ball over again. With only 17.8 seconds to play, Fort Hill junior Will Harris lunged for the ball and got Keyser's Wes Washington instead.

Washington missed the foul shot and Fort Hill took the rebound to their end of the court. Hartman saw an opening, stole the ball and went the length of the court for the game's final bucket - an emphatic dunk - at the buzzer.

"I just think we turned the ball over too many times," Rice said.

Liston said he wasn't sure how his team would respond to the several minutes-long delay in such a tense situation. Turns out, "it might have worked to our benefit," Liston said.

"We just came off a five-point lead" that had been blown, Liston said.

As in the game against Mountain Ridge, the Sentinels were down early and trailed 16-13 after the first quarter. Then Fort Hill caught fire and led 29-21 with 2:14 left in the first half.

But Keyser answered in the form of two field goals in between two free throws by Washington, who finished with 16 points along with 10 rebounds, seven steals and six assists.

Fort Hill led 37-35 with 3:52 left in the third quarter when sophomore Jarrett Wolfe nailed a bucket to put the Sentinels up 39-35. D'Atri followed up with a mid-range jumper with 2:12 left in the period for a 41-35 lead and Fort Hill led 45-39 after three quarters of play.

Crabtree's field goal 32 seconds into the final period put Fort Hill up 48-41 and it seemed as if the game - and momentum - belonged to the road team. That was just before the Golden Tornado went on an 13-2 run - a 3-pointer by Hartman with 5:25 to play put Keyser up 50-49 in the middle of that run.

Hartman followed up 32 seconds later with a layup and a 54-49 lead. But Crabtree's field goal with 3:49 to go was followed by Harris's 3-pointer from the top of the key with 3:13 to play. His field goal tied the score 54-54.