By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
TURNER, Ore.– When Crosshill Christian’s Jackson Lytle walked to the line with 0.5 seconds remaining in the game with East Linn Christian Academy Tuesday night in Valley Coast Conference action, the Eagle junior had a chance to win the game.
It was a tied game when Lytle took to the line. Tied 50-50.
Crosshill had been clawing their way back into the game up to this point. Both teams entered the game 4-0 in league play and looking to keep it that way as well by night’s end. At one point in the first half, they were down double-digits to the Eagles of East Linn. But in Crosshill fashion, as they’ve done on several occasions this year, they battled back from the deficit.
At halftime, East Linn led 32-26. The Eagles still led going into the fourth quarter, 41-33.
But that was when things began to flip for the Eagles of Crosshill. Their shots were falling, their defense clutched up, the band of brothers who’ve played together for years pieced together a 17-9 run to pull even with East Linn Christian.
“It’s mental toughness. It’s all in our heads and we just bring it on the defensive end. To get back into games, defense wins games,” Lytle said.
Lytle missed the front-end of the pair of free throws before the East Linn Christian Eagles called timeout. But thanks to that timeout, it settled Lytle’s nerves as he sank the second free throw to put them ahead 51-50. It was the first lead of the night for Crosshill when Lytle hit that shot.
“The first one I was really nervous, but on the second one I knew that it was going in,” Lytle said.
Crosshill Christian clogged up the throw-in lanes for East Linn on their last second attempt to try to win the game. East Linn threw in it in hopes for a foul as both teams were in the bonus at the time, but none was called as the buzzer rang with Crosshill Christian celebrating the victory as they improved to 5-0 in conference play and East Linn fell to 4-1 in the conference.
Lytle and Miles Lute each led the Eagles of Crosshill with 18 points. Crosshill will host Central Linn on Friday for Homecoming. East Linn will host Toledo on Friday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
