JERRY CITY — Andrew Davis made just one 2-point basket Friday night.
However, Davis’ layup with 5.6 seconds left in regulation will go down in the annals of the “Battle of
the Woods” rivalry between Elmwood and Eastwood as a big-time hoop.
The layup gave Elmwood a 58-56 lead in the hotly-contested game. The Royals’ Jay Hannah then stole the
Eagles’ in-bounds pass and his 30-foot heave at the buzzer went in, to make the final 61-56.
Elmwood is 11-3 overall and 7-1 in the Suburban Lakes League, two games in front of second-place Woodmore
with four league games remaining. Eastwood is 4-9, 4-4. PHOTO GALLERY

Kevin Hammer penetrated into the lane and found Davis open for the layup.
“I just cut backdoor. I saw him (Hammer) going and my defender picked him up, so I thought I’d just go
backdoor. He got the pass to me and I made the shot,” Davis said. “I had missed one (layup) earlier in
the game so I had to make up for it.”
Elmwood coach Ty Traxler said Davis’ hoop came off a play the Royals use at the end of a quarter, but not
at the end of the game.
“We didn’t want them to have a chance to set their defense,” Traxler said. “The kids now that we run that
and they know how to get good looks out of it.
“Kevin made a nice drive. We thought for sure he was going to shoot it, but he made that extra pass,” he
continued. “That little bit of extra teamwork got us a better look and a wide open layup.”
The Eagles lost 64-44 in the first meeting with the Royals this season, but lately have been in close
games. However, they have not been able to pull off the win.
“At times tonight I felt like we competed,” Eastwood head coach Todd Henline said. “We didn’t want to
give them open layups because they hadn’t been shooting very well from the free-throw line tonight.”
The Royals were only 12-of-25 from the free-throw line and the missed foul shots gave the Eagles the
opportunity to hang around.
And Eastwood took advantage, despite trailing by 12 points in the third quarter.
“When we got down 12, it would have been real easy to cave in, but we put ourselves in a position to
win,” Henline said. “I’m proud of our will to fight back.
“We need to find a way to scrap out a win,” he continued. “Give their kids credit, they made a nice play
at the end. But with the game on the line, we have to find a way to shut that down.”
Elmwood was up 14-10 at the end of the first quarter and 26-23 at the half as TJ Waldock scored eight of
his team-high 15 points in the first half for the Royals.
For the Eagles, Caleb Vespi came off the bench to score 21 points, 13 in the first half.
“We’ve been waiting for him to play like that,” Henline said about Vespi. “We knew he had that in him. He
finally looked to assert himself inside.”
Hannah helped the Royals get a quick start in the second half, hitting two 3-pointers and three free
throws to put Elmwood up, 37-25 with 3:24 to play in the quarter.
“He hasn’t been himself lately, but he found himself in the second half,” Traxler said about Hannah.
The Eagles closed the third quarter on an 8-2 run to pull within 41-37 heading into the final eight
minutes.
Eastwood then scored the first five points of the fourth quarter and the game stayed close the rest of
the way,
Elmwood was up 55-51 with 1:44 left after a hoop by Jack Waldock.
Jake Schmeltz, a freshman, then buried a three for the Eagles with 1:25 remaining to cut Elmwood’s lead
to 55-54.
Davis split a pair of free throws with 1:11 left putting the Royals up 56-54.
Jake Faykosh then hit a short runner from the right baseline to tie the game at 56 with 38 seconds left
and set the stage for Hammer and Davis.
“It was a really good game. They came out hard. We didn’t really play our greatest defense out there, but
we came out with the win, so it was definitely big,” Davis said.
Traxler was pleased that Hammer and Max Zyski each made two key free throws in the fourth quarter.
“I guess we can hang our hat that we hit them when it mattered,” Traxler said.
In addition to T.J. Waldock’s 15 points, Hannah scored 14, all in the second half, and Hammer added 12.
T.J. Waldock added nine rebounds and Jack Waldock had eight assists while Hammer had five.
Vespi was the only Eastwood player in double figures.
Eastwood won the junior varsity game, 43-41. Nick Vespi hit a reverse layup for the eventual game-winner
with less than a minute left. Vespi finished with 11 points and Kevin Sweeney added 10. Zach Foster
scored 17 points for Elmwood.