By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
It looked like they had it in the bag. On Friday, December 9, Coach Josh Arey and his Peebles Indians traveled to Ripley High School to match up with the host Blue Jays in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play. The Indians ran into what many teams do when they compete in the Ripley gymnasium, a rough shooting night, but the Tribe found their stroke enough to rally from a double digit deficit and send the game into overtime. In that extra period, Peebles had a lead late but saw it slip away as the Blue Jays escaped with a 50-47 win.
The Indians just didn’t look sharp from the beginning, struggling on offense the entire night. Neither team lit it up early and it took three minutes for the game’s first bucket, that coming from Peebles’ Zane Knechtly. A following score from Hayden Browning made it 4-0 before the Jays’ Ansh Singh broke the ice for the home team with the first of what would be his game-high 19 points.
After a jumper by Gage Grooms, the Indians led 6-2 but then went cold as the Blue Jays reeled off the game’s next 9 points to take an 11-6 lead. Peebles managed a Cory Reed free throw late in the first period but still trailed after one, 11-7.
The second quarter began with a baseline drive and score from Christopher Oldfield to pull Peebles within two but again their offense went stagnant for nearly seven minutes and the home team took advantage, going on a 10-0 run fueled by a trio of buckets off the bench by Gus Gibbs that gave Ripley a 21-9 advantage with just a minute left in the first half. The Indians managed to find a little of their footing in that final minute, getting a Knechtly layup and then a banked home three at the buzzer from Reed to make it 23-14 at the half.
Coach Arey’s halftime speech must have hit the mark as it looked like a totally different Peebles team that took the floor for third quarter action. After a putback by Gibbs gave Ripley a 25-14 advantage, the Indians turned up the full court defensive pressure and it seemed to rattle the home team as Peebles went on a huge 19-2 run to reclaim the lead. Mason Sims played a big part in the spurt, scoring half the points and the Indians scored off of three consecutive turnovers. A three-ball from Reed with three minutes left in the third gave the visitors a 33-27 lead.
But just as quickly as the Indians had turned it up, the Blue Jays grabbed the momentum right back, going on a 10-1 run behind two buckets from Ty Fyffe and back to back triples from Singh, the final coming as the Ripley senior guard intercepted an inbounds pass and dialed long distance at the horn to give his team a 37-34 lead as the third period closed.
A low-scoring final quarter ensued as the game wound right down to the wire. Single free throws from Knechtly and Browning pulled Peebles within one, before a bucket by Gibbs gave the Jays a 39-36 advantage with 4:32 left in the contest. Both sides then hit a scoring drought that lasted until a Grooms three-pointer at the 1:52 mark tied the score. A bucket by Ripley’s Mekhi Carsby put the home team in front but a stick back by Sims with a minute to go tied it up again at 41. The Indians got the ball back late and held for a final shot and win on the road but a contested attempt at the buzzer by Browning was off the mark and the game went to a four-minute overtime period.
Peebles opened to scoring in OT with a Grooms three-pointer on the Indians’ first possession and on their first possession the Jays got a basket from Singh and then things just began to go badly for both sides. n their next possession, the Indians missed four shots and on the other end, Fyffe missed the front end of a bonus situation at the charity stripe. That was followed by the two teams combining to turn the ball over three consecutive times.
With 33 seconds left in overtime, Sims was fouled and hit both shots to put Peebles up 46-43 and a drive and score by Singh pulled Ripley back within one. With 17 seconds left, Sims hit one of two from the line to give Peebles a two-point lead but somehow Ripley’s Chayston Shields got behind the Indians defense to score an easy layup to tie the game. Peebles inbounded and somehow lost control and the ball was scooped up by Singh, who drove to the hoop, scored, was fouled, and hit the free throw as in rapid fashion the Jays had turned a two-point deficit into a three-point lead.
Coach Arey quickly called a timeout as his team had 3.6 seconds to go full court to attempt to tie the game and after two passes they managed to get the ball into the front court but a final shot went awry and the Blue Jays had pulled off a miracle at the end for the 50-47 victory.
The winning Blue Jays were led by 19 points from Ansh Singh and given a big boost by 12 points off the bench from senior Gus Gibbs.
Peebles was paced by 14 points from Gage Grooms and 13 from Mason Sims, with Cory Reed adding 9.
After the tough Friday night loss, the Indians’offense struggled again the next night in a non-conference trip to Western Latham, where the host Indians downs the visiting Indians by a final score of 58-49. Chris Oldfield’s 13 points led the Tribe in their Saturday loss, which left them with a record of 2-3 overall with another non-conference match up slated for Tuesday, December 13 at Blanchester. The Peebles boys will be back at home on Friday, December 16 to face the Fayetteville Rockets in SHAC competition.
Blue Jays 50
Indians 47 (OT)
Peebles
7 7 20 7 6 —47
Ripley
11 12 14 4 9 —50
Peebles (47): Sims 4 4-5 13, Oldfield 1 0-1 2, Grooms 5 2-2 14, Reed 3 1-2 9, Browning 1 1-2 3, Knechtly 2 2-4 6, Team 16 10-16 47.
Ripley (50): Fyffe 2 0-1 4, Carsby 1 0-0 2, Singh 8 1-1 19, Akers 3 0-0 6, Shields 2 0-0 5, Manning 1 0-2 2, Gibbs 6 0-0 12. Team 23 1-4 50.
Three-Point Goals:
Peebles (5)- Sims 1, Grooms 2, Reed 2
Ripley (3)- Singh 2, Shields 1