Give it to the guy who got you there

BROOKSVILLE - Looking for lucky No. 13 and his most important field goal of the night, Central's Darryn Frazier took the rebound with only seconds left on the clock, went coast-to-coast and pulled up from just inside the three-point arc taking an off-balanced jumper.

Though Frazier deposited 34 points, his final field attempt at the buzzer fell short as Nature Coast prevailed at the Bears' Den, 58-56.

With the win, Nature Coast Technical improved its overall record to 4-4 and 3-3 in Class 4A-8 and 1-1 in the Hernando County Athletic Conference.

Central dipped to 2-6 overall, 1-3 in Class 5A District 7 and 1-1 in the HCAC.

Even early

Things were pretty even in the first quarter, as each team went to man-to-man defense with all players sizing up equally.

Nature Coast took the lead early, 15-14. Five Sharks put points on the board including starters Reshad Terry, Preston Williams, P.J. Orgass and Joe Silvestri.

Mike Adams came off the bench and also added a field goal.

Frazier led all scorers with nine points on four field goals and a free throw.

Teammate Barrett Sheffield added a three-pointer and Greg Rodriguez hit for a field goal.

But the second quarter was all Nature Coast.

Orgass hit on an early three-pointer. Central's Frazier drove to the basket twice drawing fouls, but missed both shots and went 1-for-4 from the free throw line.

Silvestri, fourth in 4A-8 scoring, hit his second three-pointer on a 12-3 Nature Coast run. Frazier answered with his own trey to end the run but Shark guard Bryant Pent hit another three and then Silvestri put the exclamation point on it with his second three-pointer of the quarter.

Frazier ended the half on a backdoor reverse lay-up that excited the crowd, but the damage had been done. Nature Coast went into halftime up 11, 33-22.

"We were patient in the offense. We got good looks," said Sharks Head Coach David Pisarcik. "We got Joey his shots, we were up. For the second half we were in the locker room thinking they were going to put pressure on us."

Central comeback

That pressure didn't come early enough.

The third quarter was much like the first, but Central took the upper hand, cutting the lead down to seven. Frazier had three field goals including a trey. Rodriguez hit a three, Joseph Lula had two baskets and Jessey Fulton went 2-for-2 from the line.

NCT's Orgass had two field goals and Adams countered with a three-pointer. Terry, Mike Fields and Williams all contributed for Nature Coast.

"Reshad is our energy player and we feed off him," said Coach Pisarcik. "He gives us energy. He gets us rebounds. He can drive the ball pretty well.

"Adams' got a few rebounds, hit a three. That's what we need from him; someone else has got to step up, it can't always be Joey (Silvestri)."

Central started to full court press in the fourth quarter and that's when things got interesting.

"We've been having problems with the pressure defense," Pisarcik said. "We turned the ball over as you see; we went from a ten point lead to one in a hurry. You turn the ball over, that stuff's going to happen."

Nature Coast was leading 51-43 when Central went into the penalty. A combination of fouls, turnovers and Frazier spelled impending disaster for the visitors. Frazier had already scored a field goal, made two rebounds and hit both sides of a one-and-one.

With 3:45 left in the fourth, Central had cut the lead to one, 51-50.

After a timeout, Silvestri made his first basket of the fourth quarter only to have Rodriguez answer, 53-52.

Fields drove the lane with 58 seconds left for a basket-and-one, but missed the free throw to make the score 55-52.

Central now controlled the ball. Frazier received the inbound pass, dumped it off to Fulton on the give-and-go and scored on an easy lay-up making it 55-54 with 19 seconds left.

Silvestri was fouled by Greg Rodriguez and hit both sides of the one-and-one giving Nature Coast a three point lead, 57-54.

Central again inbounded the pass and Fulton went into the lane for an easy lay-up. The score was now 57-56 with 9.1 seconds left.

Silvestri was fouled again, and made the first of two free throws, making the final 58-56.

Central Head Coach Eric Hayes was proud of his team, and gave credit to the Sharks.

"We were in a fight. They get some shots in the second quarter, made some opportunities, moved the ball well," said Hayes. "We're playing defense well. In the second half we shut down some of the stuff they were doing. We wanted to keep them off balance; run and jump type stuff, to try to change the course of the game. I thought it was going to work. It almost worked."