Boys Basketball: Davione Stamps, Plano seal win over Sandwich with sizzling free throw shooting

PLANO – Davione Stamps looked as comfortable as could be alone on the free-throw line Friday, calmly making shot after shot.

The Plano junior guard was quick to dish an assist for that focus.

“I’m going to be honest, it’s because of Ke [Plano teammate Christ Keleba],” Stamps said. “We do 75 of 75 in practice, make one you get one point, but if you miss it’s two. And I don’t like to lose.”

The Reapers weren’t losing with the way Stamps and his teammates made their free throws late Friday. Plano made 10 consecutive free throws in the final three minutes, and Stamps was 8 for 8 from the line in the fourth quarter, preserving a 53-46 win over visiting Sandwich to split the season series with its Interstate 8 Conference rival.

Stamps, who scored a game-high 18 points, made two free throws with 2:31 left for a 43-39 lead after Sandwich’s Chance Lange missed a contested layup for the tie. Stamps made two more in the final minute to help Plano win its second consecutive game for the first time this season. He found his rhythm from the line at crunch time despite taking just one shot from the field in the second half.

“I was hoping they would foul me,” Stamps said. “I’m a team player. If I wasn’t shooting, I would still keep my groove.”

Stamps earlier hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the final 1:21 of the first half, giving Plano a 26-17 halftime cushion.

“We knew that he was going to be our leader with the ball in his hands all year,” Plano coach Kyle Kee said. “The game is starting to slow down for him, he’s starting to understand what we want. Hopefully we can keep it going.”

Samuel Sifuentes added 12 points for Plano (7-16, 3-7), his driving layup with 7:18 left giving the Reapers the lead for good at 36-34 after Sandwich’s Owen Sheley had tied it with two free throws. Plano, which also led at halftime of an eventual loss at Sandwich in December, this time kept its composure with its free-throw shooting and just eight turnovers for the game.

“They were pressuring us, and we handled it much better than we had earlier in the year,” Kee said. “We’re just not turning the ball over like we were early on in the season. I don’t think it’s anything we’re doing as coaches. The guys are just figuring out how to play at this level.”

While Plano kept its turnovers at a minimum, Sandwich (13-11, 6-4) struggled to get a handle on the Reapers’ zone trap. Plano had seven steals at halftime, and the Indians had difficulty navigating through the zone to get shots closer to the rim.

Dylan Young had a team-high 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Evan Gottlieb, who missed a game this week with a jammed thumb but played Friday wearing a wrap on it, added seven points on 2-for-11 shooting. The Indians also shot just 11 for 20 from the free-throw line. Sandwich twice trailed by 11 in the third quarter, but a Dom Rome 3-pointer capped off a 13-3 run to cut it to 33-32.

“I thought they hit us in the mouth early that whole first half, to be honest. We struggle with zones,” Sandwich coach Kevin Kozan said. “I just think we didn’t attack the zone enough. Normally when teams run man-to-man against us, we do a good job of running our offense and getting layups. We weren’t attacking, we weren’t ball-faking enough, we weren’t getting downhill.

“I think we tried to beat it with the pass, but I think the guys forgot that we can beat it with the drive as well.”

Plano grabbed a 14-9 lead after a quarter with a 12-0 run, Stamps and Sifuentes both scoring baskets in transition off of turnovers. The Reapers kept that lead by holding Sandwich without a field goal the first five minutes of the second quarter.

“We just read their eyes, make sure we knew where the passes were going,” Stamps said, “and get the steal.”

Kaleb Videckis added eight points for Plano, which beat La Salle-Peru earlier in the week and at home, and is now 5-5 over its last 10 games. And the Reapers have done it this week without leading scorer AJ Johnson, who dressed Friday but didn’t play with a hand injury.

“Great week for us,” Kee said. “Two good teams, two physical teams. We have three next week. That’s what we’re hoping, get on a run.”

Sandwich, meanwhile, hopes to get back on a run that made it one of the area’s best surprises this year.

“We gotta remember that we were 1-29 last year,” Kozan said. “We have to remember that just because we won 13 games that teams aren’t going to give us a win. We have to compete every day. We have to get back to that intensity.”