THE WAY AKEEM MARSH was scoring you’d think the play-off race would drag on for another day.
Try an extra period.
Lumber Company Lakers squandered all of a 16-point second-quarter lead, and still survived Marsh’ career-high 45 points, putting an end to Roll-A-Way St John’s Sonics’ slim hopes of reaching basketball’s Premier League postseason via Tuesday’s 95-87 overtime cliff-hanger at the Wildey Gymnasium.
The result wrapped up the fourth and final play-off berth for Jackson (12-7), who only had to wait for a Sonics (10-9) loss after thumping Senators 84-58 in the night’s earlier game.
But it’s an outcome that didn’t look likely while Marsh was busy turning the night’s featured contest into his own personal mix-tape.
At one point – from the end of the third to midway through the fourth quarter – the towering six-foot-nine forward hit eight jumpers in succession, not including free throws, to account for 15 straight Sonics points.
And they came from just about anywhere; from the baseline, at the elbow and even off the glass for an “and-one” play as anything but a miss seemed certain once the ball was in the hands of the reigning MVP.
It was the story of his surreal 22-point fourth-quarter effort that saw Sonics rally from a 51-59 deficit to take what appeared to be a decisive 83-78 lead inside the final two minutes.
This was after Sonics had already fallen behind by double digits twice – a ten-point hole (14-24) early in the first quarter and a similarly daunting 30-46 margin minutes before intermission.
However, Lakers got a preview of what was to come, with Marsh scoring the last four points of the half and the next three on the other side of the break to pull St John’s within eight, all while Lakers’ half-court offence stalled.
Then came the real show. Somewhere along the way, though, St John’s seemed to forget the plot.
With Sonics leading 83-78, Philip Harewood waved off Marsh on one possession, while Dwayne Kellman and Rommel Garnes went on drives of their own once Lakers started bringing extra defenders for the prolific Sonics big man.
The result was a game-tying 7-2 Lakers rally; started by Ricardo Jemmott’s “and-one” play and capped by Matthew Moore’s loose-ball lay-up with under 20 seconds remaining.
Marsh eventually touched the ball on the final possession of regulation, but had to come above the arc to do so before giving it back to Garnes for an “air-balled” jumper as time expired.
And his touches were further limited in the extra period, as Sonics didn’t score for the first 3:14 until Marsh got fouled on a put-back with Lakers already leading 89-85.
It proved the last of Sonics’ points too, with Adrian Allman icing the game on successive open court lay-ups of a Garnes turnover and rushed jumpers from Stefan Clarke and Bernard Howell.
Allman finished with 19 points, Jemmott and Keefe Birkett both scored 18, while Ormond Haynes added 14 and Ian Alexander chipped in with 12. Harewood and Kellman had 16 and ten points respectively for Sonics, while Marsh added 14 rebounds and three blocks.
