Tigers wrap up outstanding season

(Continued from last week.)

McClain downed Rock Hill March 4, 1995 and advanced to meet Ironton on Tuesday night, March 7 in a regional semi-final match.

The Tigers trailed Ironton, 59-49, with 5:40 remaining in the game.

They outscored the orange-and-black 12-2 over that stretch to send the game into overtime.

Each team scored two points in the first overtime. In the second overtime, McClain’s sticky defense forced some critical Ironton turnovers and the Tigers made their free-throw opportunities count.

Richie Price sealed the win with two free throws with 12 seconds remaining to put the Tigers up, 76-71.

That was the final score. All five McClain starters scored in double figures (a tough statistic to beat).

Johnson totaled 10 points, Seely and Bergstrom hit for 13 each, Price had 15 and Smith scored 19.

The Tigers would advance to the regional finals, where they would meet Cambridge for the elusive ticket to the state tournament.

The Cambridge vs. McClain game would match two teams who were very similar.

Neither had a strong pivot player, both played good, solid defense, both liked to penetrate and both loved the three-point shot.

Since McClain and Cambridge had the biggest fan following in the tournament, the Convo would be rocking March 10. Nobody doubted that.

The Tigers led at halftime in this game, 30-25.

But the double-overtime game with Ironton and the two-hour trips back and forth finally took their toll.

The purple-and-gold seemed to run out of gas in the second half.

Cambridge employed a 1-3-1 zone defense, which the Tigers never quite figured out.

The Bobcats had a 13-0 run in the third quarter and seemed to take the Tigers out of the game.

McClain fought back.

When Bergstrom hit a three with 3:03 remaining in the game (his third of the evening) the margin was cut to two points.

But Cambridge came out on top, 52-48. They got the state tourney slot.

The Tigers didn’t have great size, and they didn’t have unbelievable talent.

However, they were blue-collar players who never quit under any circumstances. They were over-achievers.

The 1995 Tigers deserve to be remembered as one of the better teams in McClain history.

Between 1975, when Sam Snyder’s McClain team lost in the regional finals, and this season (1994-95), McClain had been runners-up in the regional tournament four times.

Immediately following the end of the basketball season, Washington C.H. City Schools announced that Troy Dawson, the football coach at McClain for the past five years, had been employed as head coach at Washington.

(Continued next week.)

Bob Patton is a Highland County sports historian and a contributing writer to The Highland County Press.