01/26/10 @ Home 6:30pm  Flashes 49          Panthers 46

FLORENCE - Every time Manan Desai touches the ball, the word "shooter" rings out from opposing benches.  Florence's 3-point shooting specialist is deadly when he catches it beyond the 3-point line. But after the Flashes fell behind in overtime, who did coach Pereda draw up a play for? Brandon Meredith, of course. Meredith made the open 3 - his only points of the game - and Florence never trailed again. The Flashes beat the Panthers 49-46 in a Freedom Division overtime basketball thriller. The junior backup guard had been in the position earlier in the year, with different results. "We were in this same situation against Delran," Pereda said. "We set up a play for him and he got a good look but missed it. I told him this was his shot again. And he nailed it." The 3 put Florence (6-6 overall, 4-2 Freedom) up 44-43 with 2:03 left. Palmyra (3-9, 2-4) countered with a missed 3 of its own and a putback attempt that bounced away and the Flashes put the game away from the line, making 5 of 6 free throws to close out the game.

Manan led the scoring for Florence with five 3's and 17 points, all but two free throws in regulation. Adam Schmidt, who fouled out early in the OT period, scored 10 points. "I don't know why he drew the play up for me," Meredith said. "If it wasn't for my teammates I wouldn't have gotten the shot off. They all went into the middle and they got me the ball. "I'm glad (Pereda) trusts me. He says it in practice and he told me every day that he was going to go back to me. He trusts me. Every day he says I'm going to get more chances. When it went in I didn't know what to do. I was so excited I was just speechless."