Demitri Fritch jumper boosts Springdale past Apollo-Ridge

By: George Guido
Friday, January 31, 2020 | 11:25 PM

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Demitri Fritch will just have to wait a few days to score his 1,000th career point.

The Springdale standout’s 10-foot jumper with 1.9 seconds to go lifted the No. 4 Class 2A Dynamos to a 49-47 victory at Apollo-Ridge.

The junior now has 999 career points.

Springdale trailed, 44-34, with 3:21 left in the game after Klay Fitzroy’s steal and a basket put the Vikings up by 10.

With the score tied at 47-all after a pair of free throws by Logan Dexter, Apollo-Ridge committed its seventh turnover of the fourth period, giving Springdale possession with 51 seconds to go.

Fritch was blanketed by Fitzroy but was finally able to make a move as the clock went under eight seconds. Fritch pulled up and hit the game-winner, making it the fourth consecutive time in the last two seasons that the Dynamos defeated the Vikings in the waning seconds.

“I was confident in myself. I was off all night,” Fritch said. “They were pinching in and I was going to try and take the jumper that I was missing all game, and I had confidence.”

“I didn’t know if they were going to double (team) him to get it out of his hands or not,” said Springdale coach Aaron Epps. “To be honest, I didn’t want a jumper. I wanted him to get to the rim and kick it out. But I saw with about 12 seconds left he wanted that moment, which the best players do.”

The victory kept Springdale in a tie for first place in Section 1-2A with Sto-Rox. If the Dynamos win both of their games next week, it will be Springdale’s first section title since 1993. Both teams would get section plaques, per WPIAL policy.

The Dynamos won despite a fabulous performance by Apollo-Ridge junior Klay Fitzroy, who scored 29 of his team’s 47 points.

The 6-foot-4 junior was all but unstoppable before a huge home crowd.

“The kids did a great job getting Klay the ball and giving him great opportunities,” Vikings coach Greg Fox said.

In fact, just three Vikings scored as Jake Fello tallied 11 and Keighton Reese seven. Reese didn’t get into the scoring column until he hit a pair of 3-pointers to start the fourth period as Apollo-Ridge built its 10-point advantage.

“The diamond press and our free throws down the stretch won it,” Epps said. “Demitri struggled tonight, but he turned it on the last three minutes.”

Fritch scored 11 of his 22 points in the final 3:10 of play.

Apollo-Ridge (13-6, 8-4) turned the ball over in three of its final four possessions.

Said Fox: “It was turnovers again. We didn’t protect the ball. I thought we had good looks. We didn’t capitalize on a couple of odd-break opportunities, but those turnovers down the stretch killed us again.”

The Vikings defense held Fritch and Logan Dexter to just a field goal each in the first half. Springdale also hit just 3 of 9 foul shots over the first two periods.

The Dynamos, however, were 7 of 8 from the line in the fourth period.

Springdale closes out its home season Tuesday against Summit Academy. Assuming Fritch gets a point, it will mark the first time, according to available records, that a Dynamos junior has reached the 1,000-point plateau since the late Dickie DeVenzio did it in 1966.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Springdale