By Mark Carpenter-
It is well known that one of the toughest venues for visiting teams in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference is what is known as “The Nest” at Ripley High School. With its unique shooting backgrounds, the RHS gymnasium is a challenge for all teams and that is what Coach Josh Arey and his Peebles Indians faced on Tuesday, Jan. 7 as they headed to the river for an important small school-big school conference battle.
For most of the night, the game was in the control of the home team, but in the fourth quarter when it came down to the nitty gritty, it was the experienced, calm, and collected Indians who rallied from behind to pick up a huge conference road win by a final score of 70-63. Peebles improved to 8-2 on the season, winning their sixth consecutive game behind a combined 43 points from Hunter Ruckel and Weston Browning and an unheralded defensive effort in the fourth quarter from senior Kyle Lightner.
“I thought our kids didn’t panic tonight,” said Coach Arey in his postgame radio interview. “Early on, we wanted to play zone to keep Royal out of the paint, but they hit some shots against it. Any time that your kids can bounce back in a hostile place, it’s a good thing.”
The Blue Jays struck first on Tuesday night, getting early three-pointers from Cody Germann and Kobe Rigdon to take an 8-4 lead. (The Jays eventually made an impressive 14 baskets from beyond the arc in the game.) Four straight points from Peebles’ Easton Wesley tied the game at 8 apiece before another Rigdon trey put the home tam back on top. The Jays continued to pull away from long distance and three-point goals from Braiden Bennington and Germann, banked in at the buzzer gave the home side a 20-10 advantage after one period of play.
Maybe it took just that first quarter for the Indians to adjust to their surroundings, but they came out on fire in the second frame, scoring on their first six possessions on their way to a 13-0 run that suddenly put them in the lead at 23-20. A three-pointer by Ripley’s Peyton Fyffe tied the game and the two teams went back and forth until the Jays’ Nigel Royal scored seven points in the half’s final two minutes and at the break, it was Ripley in front 37-31.
Again with the aid of the three-point shot, the Jays extended their lead early in the third period with long distance bombs from Royal and Fyffe that made it 43-33. The Indians then took their turn and battled back, with a 7-0 run that included a three-point play from Dawson Mills. A three-pointer from Hunter Ruckel and a bucket by Browning pulled Peebles to within 48-45 at third quarter’s end.
Three-point goals from Royal and Ruckel began the decisive fourth quarter and the combination of two Browning free throws, two Ruckel free throws, and then a Ruckel three, the Indians took their first lead since the second quarter at 55-53. Again from the charity stripe with Ruckel and Browning each hitting two, the Indians took a 61-54 advantage with 2:21 to play. In the fourth quarter, the Indians seemed to keep the ball in the hand of two dependable seniors in Ruckel and Browning, and on defense Coach Arey switched senior Kyle Lightner to the task of defending Ripley’s Royal and the senior did an outstanding job on the Jay’s leading scorer, who scored just four in the final eight minutes.
A three-point play by Browning with 1:58 left and two more Ruckel foul shots stretched the lead to 66-55 and from that point on the Indians were in the driver’s seat. Ripley got late threes from Fyffe and Germann but it was too little, too late as the Indians completed their comeback and knocked off the host Jays by the final count of 70-63.
Hunter Ruckel, who came up huge with 14 fourth quarter points, led all scorers in the game with 25 points while the always steady Weston Browning added 18 for the winners, hitting 10 of 11 free throw attempts. Oakley Burba scored 8, Easton Wesley 7, and Dawson Mills 6 for the Indians, who are now 5-2 in conference play.
“Weston and Hunter are both tremendous players and they play off of each other really well,” said Coach Arey. “Add kids like Oakley (Burba) and Dawson (Mills) and Alex (Camp) who keeps getting better, and I thought Kyle (Lightner) did an outstanding defensive job in the fourth quarter.”
Ripley was led by Nigel Royal’s 22 points, with Peyton Fyffe also hitting double figures with 13, and Cody Germann adding 9.
The Indians will be back in SHAC action on Friday, Jan. 10 when they travel to Whiteoak to battle the improving Wildcats. After knocking off New Boston, the #3 ranked Division IV team in the state last weekend, the Indians will battle #9 Glouster Trimble on the road Saturday night.
Peebles
10 21 14 25 —70
Ripley
20 17 11 15 —63
Peebles (70): Mills 2 2-3 6, Burba 3 2-4 8, Ruckel 7 8-10 25, Camp 2 0-2 4, Lightner 1 0-0 2, Browning 4 10-11 18, Wesley 2 3-7 7, Team 21 25-37 70.
Ripley (63): Royal 8 2-5 22, Whaley 1 1-2 3, Germann 3 0-0 9, Fyffe 5 0-0 13, Ellis 1 0-0 3, Bennington 3 0-0 7, Rigdon 2 0-0 6, Team 23 3-7 63.
Three-Point Goals:
Peebles (3)- Ruckel 3
Ripley (14)- Royal 4, Germann 3, Fyffe 3, Ellis 1, Bennington 1, Rigdon 2
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