By Mark Carpenter-
When coaches preach over and over the importance of free throws and spend hours of practice time working on the art, it will eventually pay off. Never was that more evident than on Tuesday night at Waverly High School as a boys Division III sectional semi-final game between the North Adams Green Devils and the Southeastern Panthers was ultimately decided at the charity stripe, and decided in favor of the Green Devils.
Trailing 40-39 with 2:52 left in the game and their season on the brink, the Devils reeled off 10 straight points, going a perfect eight for eight from the free throw line in that span, to pull away from the Panthers and advance in tournament play with an eventual 51-42 victory. Six of those free throws came from Elijah Young, who wasn’t his usual sharp self from the field, but made up for that from the line down the stretch to held seal a hard-fought North Adams win.
“We told the kids it’s a new season for everyone,” said North Adams head coach Nathan Copas in a post game radio interview. “You’re not guaranteed anything more than this game tonight so you have to go out and play well and execute for 32 minutes. I feel like we are very fortunate tonight because we didn’t play very well, but we were still able to come out with a win.”
“I thought there were times tonight that their pressure sped us up and out of our offense, but we did have a lot of success throwing the ball to the post, but we didn’t do that consistently enough. Maybe we came out a little unfocused and looking past this game, but we won’t let that happen again.”
For some reason, there are teams that have trouble shooting the basketball in the old downtown Waverly gymnasium and on Tuesday night, that seemed to be the Green Devils as the only points they could muster in the game’s first five minutes was a banked in three-pointer by Jayden Hesler on their first possession of the game. After that Hesler trey, the Panthers got three-point goals from Aaron Gillum and Luke Corcoran as part of an 8-0 run that gave them the early advantage.
The Devils broke their five-minute scoring drought with a put back bucket from Cade Meade and baskets from Meade and Cody Rothwell drew them to within 10-9. The final score of the first quarter was a steal and lay-in by Southeastern’s Gillum, giving the Panthers a three-point lead, not a bad position for the Devils considering how flat they began the period.
The second stanza began well for the number four seeded Devils as a basket by Cade Meade and an Elijah Young jumper allowed them to reclaim the lead at 13-12, but a Gillum three-pointer quickly flipped the scoreboard back in Southeastern’s favor. At that point, the Devils showed their first big spark of the evening, going on an 11-0 run over the next four minutes, a run book ended by a bucket in the paint by Austin McCormick and an old-fashioned three point play by McCormick that gave North Adams a 24-15 lead with 1:47 left in the first half.
That prosperity didn’t linger for the Devils, however, as they allowed the Panthers to score the final five points of the first half and the two teams went to the break with North Adams in front 24-20.
The Devils got a three-pointer from Elijah Young with 6:40 to go in the third quarter, but then went into another scoring funk of over three minutes, allowing Southeastern to pull within one at 27-26 on a three-point play from Lane Ruby. North Adams then got their next four points on McCormick foul shots as the big man began to pound away in the paint, extending his team’s lead out to five.
Again, the Panthers responded near the end of a quarter, getting a bucket from Aarick Hill and a Corcoran three to pull within 33-31 as the third quarter came to an end. leaving the outcome of the game still very much in doubt.
The Devils played generous on their first possession of the final period, turning the ball over which resulted in a layup by Gillum that tied the game. North Adams bounced back from that disastrous start to get baskets from Rothwell and Cade Meade, only to see the Panthers get a Gillum trey to tighten things up once again. After a pair of McCormick free throws, Southeastern reclaimed the lead on a Ruby three and free throw, thus setting the stage for the North Adams heroics from the charity stripe.
Trailing by one, Elijah Young decided to become very aggressive on the offensive end and that resulted in him making three trip to the line in the span of a minute and he converted all six attempts to give the Devils a five-point lead with 1:31 to go. Cade Meade as next to the line, where he also hit a pair and then on the next North Adams possession, took a pass on a perfectly designed out of bounds play and laid it in for a 49-40 lead, ending a clutch 10-0 run that sealed the deal for the Devils. For good measure, Cameron Young got two more free throws with 33.8 seconds to go, the 11th and 12th of the fourth quarter for North Adams, as they advanced to the sectional title game with the 51-42 triumph.
In the win, the Devils placed three players in double figures, led by Cade Meade’s 14 points off the bench. Elijah Young and Austin McCormick each added 11 as North Adams improved to 17-4 overall.
Aaron Gillum topped Southeastern with 17 points, followed Lane Ruby adding 13.
The Devils now move to the Division III sectional championship game on Saturday, Feb. 23 back at Waverly for a 6 p.m. match up with the number five seeded Piketon Redstreaks. The winner of that contest will move on to the Ohio University Convocation Center on March 2 for district tournament action.
“You have to man up now, it’s different level of play, it’s tournament time,” said Coach Copas. “You just have to come out and battle for 32 minutes.”
Southeastern
12 8 11 11 —42
North Adams
9 15 9 18 —51
Southeastern (42): Corcoran 2 0-0 6, Gillum 6 2-4 17, Ruby 3 6-9 13, Dresbach 0 0-2 0, Wheeler 2 0-0 4, Hill 1 0-0 2, Team 14 8-15 42.
N. Adams (51): Hesler 2 0-0 5, C. Young 0 2-2 2, Rothwell 4 0-2 8, E. Young 2 6-6 11, C. Meade 6 2-2 14, McCormick 2 7-10 11, Team 16 17-22 51.
Three-Point Goals:
Southeastern (6)- Corcoran 2, Gillum 3, Ruby 1
N. Adams (2)- Hesler 1, E. Young 1
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