By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Fourteen seasons ago, the North Adams Green Devils, coached by the legendary Dave Young, defeated Zane Trace 56-50 in overtime to capture the third district championship in school history in boys basketball. On Sunday afternoon at the Ohio University Convocation Center, the latest version of the Green Devils, coached by Young’s replacement, Nathan Copas, captured number four.
After knocking off Lucasville Valley 60-48 in the Division III district tournament semi-finals, the Devils faced a tall task on Sunday in more ways than one, matching up with the #1 ranked Division III team in the state of Ohio, the one-loss Minford Falcons. To compete with the bigger and talented Falcons, the Devils had to put together the nearly perfect game and they did just that. Keeping the game at their tempo, taking care of the basketball, hitting some clutch shots and going toe to toe with the Falcons on the boards, the Devils used an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter to erase a three-point Minford lead and take the lead for good, pulling off the upset and winning the district championship by a final score of 54-46.
The win improved the Devils to 21-4 on the season, the first 20-win season in Coach Copas’s 12 years as the head man and he was understandably happy after cutting down the nets at “The Convo”.
“This is almost sureal right now,” said Coach Copas in his postgame radio interview. “We came in to give it our best shot and we weren’t going to fear anybody. We knew Minford was a great team but the kids just bought in to playing physical and executing the game plan. By far, this is the biggest game of my coaching career.”
“I thought we did a great job of keeping our composure for 32 minutes tonight. We just stayed focused and moved on to the next play which is what you have to do, especially in tournament time. It was a big key tonight that we competed on the boards and didn’t give them many second and third opportunities.”
It happens quite often to teams taking the floor at the Convo for the first time, it takes a while to adjust to the wide open spaces and the different shooting background and that happened to both sides on Sunday, especially the Devils, who misfired from all angles and only mustered five points in the first quarter. The Falcons hit their first two long range shots of the contest, a pair of three-point goals from Jackson Shoemaker and scored on their first three possessions on their way to an 11-5 advantage after one.
The shooting woes ended quickly for the Devils as they opened the second quarter scoring on their first three possessions and a Bransyn Copas steal and score followed by a Copas free throw that pulled the underdogs within one at 11-10. After Minford scored on a put back by Joe Hannah, a long three-ball from Copas tied the game at 13 and the Devils took their first lead moments later when Copas dialed long distance again to give his team their first lead at 16-14. The suddenly red-hot junior guard then nailed a nasty step-back jumper to put the Devils up 18-14 and officially put the momentum with the green and gold.
Minford got a three-pointer from leading scorer Myles Montgomery followed by a bucket from North Adams’ Breestin Schweickart to stay up by three at 20-17. The Falcons rallied to take a 21-20 lead later in the second quarter, then in one of those plays that might not stand out in the box score but is very important to the momentum of the game, Schweickart dropped in an offensive rebound at the buzzer to send the Devils to the intermission with a 22-21 lead.
An exciting third quarter of action saw two ties and six lead changes as the two teams continued to jockey for position heading down the stretch. The Falcons scored on their first two possessions of the third period to take a 25-24 lead, and the Devils went back on top with a strong offensive board and score from Dillon Ragan. An old-fashioned “and one” gave the lead back to Minford, only to see North Adams go back in front on a drive and score by Copas and a basket in transition from Carson Osborne.
The Devils took their biggest lead to that point (33-29) at the 1:55 mark of the third when Osborne swished a three-ball from the wing, but the Falcons battled back with a baskets by Shoemaker and Bennett Kayser as the third stanza closed with the game all deadlocked at 33 apiece.
A three-point play by Hannah opened the fourth quarter and looked to give the momentum to the Falcons but the Devils had the answer that totally changed everything. That answer was a huge 11-0 run over a span of two minutes, begun by a turnaround bank shot from Osborne followed by another Osborne bucket coming after the North Adams defense forced a Minford turnover. A drive and score by Copas, a layup from Osborne and a clutch corner three-pointer from Schweickart and the Devils were in business, leading 44-36 with four minutes to play.
A later basket by Ragan kept the North Adams lead at eight, where it stayed after a nice give and go resulted in an easy layup from the Devils’ Jayce Rothwell. Montgomery drilled a triple to cut the Devils’ lead to five with 1:37 to play and after a Copas free throw, the lead stood at 49-43. The Falcons missed three-point attempts on their next two offensive trips while Schweickart twice missed the front end of a bonus situation at the free throw line so the North Adams lead remained at six but the clock was running down in their favor.
With 54.6 seconds left, Copas was fouled and calmly sank both free tosses and after Minford’s Shoemaker missed his front end of the bonus, the swell of cheers and anticipation began to roll through the large North Adams crowd as they began to realize they were going to make a return trip to the Convocation Center. A basket by Osborne and a Ragan free throw made it 54-43 and a late Minford three-pointer meant little as the celebration began for the #4 seeded Devils as they took down the #1 seed and #1 ranked Falcons by the 54-46 final count to punch their ticket to the Division III Sweet 16.
It was a total all-around team effort for the Devils in their victory and they were led in scoring by bransyn Copas with 20 big points, leading both teams. Copas was joined in double figures by Carson Osborne with 13, Breestin Schweickart added 7 with Jayce Rothwell and Dillon Ragan with 6 and 5 respectively.
“Guys like Dillon just do their jobs and that’s huge,” said Coach Copas. “Breestin plays like he’s 6’10” sometimes, such a battler and competitor. When people want to double up on Bransyn, Jayce can step up at point guard and do so many things for us, while Bransyn got comfortable and really played with confidence tonight.”
Minford (22-2) placed a trio of players in double figures, led by 12 points from Myles Montgomery, with Jackson Shoemaker scoring 11 and Joe Hannah 10.
Next up for the Green Devils is a Wednesday, March 8 trip to the Convocation Center where they will face the South Point Pointers in a Division III regional semi-final game, a trip to the Elite Eight on the line. The Pointers won their district championship on Sunday with a 64-57 win over Zane Trace. Tip off for North Adams-South Point is set for 8 p.m.
“We have a couple of days to get a game plan together and then come back up here and compete for 32 minutes,” concluded Coach Copas.
North Adams
5 17 11 21—54
Minford
11 10 12 13 —46
N. Adams (54): Rothwell 3 0-2 6, Hesler 1 0-0 2, Copas 7 4-6 20, Buttelwerth 0 1-2 1, Osborne 6 0-0 13, Schweickart 3 0-2 7, Ragan 2 1-2 5, Team 22 6-14 54.
Minford (46): Kayser 3 1-2 7, Crank 2 0-0 5, Montgomery 4 2-4 12, White 0 1-1 1, Shoemaker 3 3-5 11, Hannah 3 4-5 10, Team 15 11-17 46.
Three-Point Goals:
N. Adams (4)- Copas 2, Osborne 1, Schweickart 1
Minford (5)- Crank 1, Montgomery 2, Shoemaker 2