North Adams’ Bransyn Copas, right, led all scorers with 20 points as the Devils fell to Bishop Hartley on Saturday t Shawnee State in the “battle of the 740.” (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Nine-point halftime lead vanishes, North Adams goes 2-2
AS he did so often during the first half of Saturday’s game, North Adams’ Jayce Rothwell gets through the Bishop Hartley defense and to the rim for a bucket. Rothwell scored 14 in the overtime loss for the Green devils. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
This top of the key three-pointer by Connor Young gave north Adams a 43-41 lead early in the final quarter of the December 9 battle with the Bishop Hartley Hawks.
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Coming off a tough and physical Southern Hills Athletic Conference win over Eastern Brown on Friday night, Coach Nathan Copas and his North Adams green Devils had very little recovery time before they ventured to Waller Gymnasium on the campus of Shawnee State University for their stiffest challenge of the early season at the “Battle of the 740”, a date with the Bishop Hartley Hawks, one of the top teams in Ohio’s Division II.
One thing about Nathan Copas-coached teams, they aren’t afraid to play anybody and they won’t back down from anybody, even a Division II squad that had them outsized at every position. At first glance during warm ups, the task ahead looked monumental for the Green Devils, but no one informed them of that possible fact. Even after Friday night’s battle, the Devils came out on Saturday with fire and for the first half ran the Hawks ragged up and down the 94 feet of Waller Gymnasium and raced to a nine-point halftime advantage. After being thoroughly outplayed over the first 16 minutes, the Hawks came to life in the second half, battling back to take a lead, only to see North Adams rally and eventually send the game into overtime. In the extra period, the Devils had their chances and it looked as if the contest was headed to another OT until a late foul call on the Devils gave the Hawks a game-winning free throw in a 55-54 triumph.
“I thought we competed very well today,” said Coach Copas after the tough loss. “I don’t think we will see a team as athletic as Bishop Hartley until, or if we get to the regional finals. Especially after playing a tough game last night for four quarters, to go to overtime was a success. There’s a lot of things we can learn from this one and they need to take ownership of the mistakes they made and they think about what they do to fix those. It’s the same for the mistakes we made as a team, take ownership and ask what we have to do to fix those also. All in all, I thought our kids competed very well.”
After Bishop Hartley scored the game’s first two, the Devils responded with back-to-back buckets by Jayce Rothwell and a later basket by Bransyn Copas put the Devils up 6-5. A three-pointer by the Hawks’ Jaden Calloway flipped the scoreboard again. Trailing 8-6 the Devils turned up the jets and went on a fast-paced9-0 run over the next 90 seconds, beginning with a Rothwell bucket and including a Breestin Schweickart three-ball and another drive and score from Rothwell. That spurt put North Adams up 15-9 and a buzzer-beater by the Hawks’ Pharez Nicholas cut the margin to five after one quarter of action.
On their first possession of the second stanza, a drive to the hoop and resulting score by Copas increased the lead to seven, but the Hawks answered with a 9-2 run to tie the game at 19 after a North Adams turnover ended with a Calloway basket and forced Coach Copas to burn a timeout.
The brief respite re-ignited the Devils who scored the next seven points, a Bransyn Copas three, followed by a Rothwell jumper and a run out layup by Cody Hesler, making it 26-19 North Adams. The next two scores belonged to Bishop Hartley but the scrappy Devils answered this time with six straight, baskets by Carson Osborne, Copas and Rothwell tot ake3 a 32-23 advantage. the two teams traded baskets over the quarter’s final minute to send the Devils to the halftime break with a 34-25 advantage.
In the first half, the Devils did all the things they needed to do to hang with the Hawks- rebounded, took care of the basketball and drove to the rim at will. After the intermission, those things began to disappear. After the break it was new Bishop Hartley team on the floor as the Hawks exploded for the first 14 points of the second half to take a 39-34 lead over the stunned Green Devils. North Adams went scoreless over the first six minutes of the third quarter, that rough spell broken by a stickback by Connor Young followed by a pair of Copas free throws to pull his team within one at 39-38.
With 37.8 seconds left in the third, Rothwell sank two charity tosses to send the Devils into the final eight minutes trailing by just one, 41-40.
“I knew with the game last night, we were getting tired,” said Coach Copas. “I just kept telling them to get their heads up and finish it out Being tired in a rough and physical game is not ideal.”
That deficit disappeared quickly when Connor Young nailed a three-pointer from the top of the key to give the lead back to the Devils and they added to that lead with an offensive board and score from Schweickart to go up 45-41 with five minutes to play. As the final period progressed, North Adams maintained a slim advantage and when Copas drilled another triple with just over two minutes to play, the Devils were up four, but that turned out to be their last points of regulation. The Hawks’ Ethan Godfrey hit one of two from the foul line and when they got the ball back a Godfrey three from deep in the corner tied the game at 50. The Devils ended up with the ball under their own basket with 1.6 seconds left and a chance to win but a contested Young three-point attempt fell short and the two teams went into the four-minutes of extra time.
Neither team scored for the first two minutes of overtime and then they swapped baskets with a Copas drive and acrobatic reverse layup tying the score at 54 with 56.5 seconds to play. Copas was fouled on the play but missed the free throw and the Hawks chose to hold for the last shot. With 1,9 seconds left on the clock, a shot by the Hawks’ Jakhi Calloway was swatted away by Schweickart but a foul was called on the play. Calloway hit the first free throw but missed the second. The Hawks snagged the rebound and time ran out on the North Adams upset attempt as Bishop Hartley escaped with the 55-54 win.
“I’m proud of the way our kids battled, especially knowing very little about Bishop Hartley coming in,” added Coach Copas. “I thought we did a lot of things today that we will need to do to be successful the rest of the season. It’s a loss I’m not completely upset about.”
For the winners, Jakhi Calloway was the top scorer with 16 points, with Pharez Nicholas adding 11.
For North Adams, Bransyn Copas led all scores with 20, while Jayce Rothwell joined in double figures with 14.
The stat sheets for the contest were nearly identical. Both teams made 23 field goals and four three-pointers, the sole difference being the Hawks made five free throws while the Green Devils made four.
The road got no easier for the Green Devils as they were set o be back on their home floor on Tuesday, December 12 to face the talented Minford Falcons, a team they knocked off in last year’s Division III district tournament when the Falcons were ranked #1 in the state.
North Adams
15 19 6 10 4 —54
Bishop Hartley
10 15 16 9 5 —55
N. Adams (54): Rothwell 6 2-2 14, Hesler 2 0-0 4, Young 2 0-0 6, Copas 8 2-3 20, Osborne 3 0-0 6, Schweickart 2 0-0 5, Team 23 4-5 54.
B. Hartley 55): Nicholas 5 1-2 11, Jaden Calloway 4 0-0 9, Jakhu Calloway 7 2-3 16, Svetek 3 1-2 9, Michael 1 0-0 2, Godfrey 2 1-2 6, Reynolds 1 0-0 2, Team 23 5-9 55.
Three-Point Goals:
North Adams (4)- Young 1, Copas 2, Schweickart 1
Bishop Hartley (4)- Jaden Calloway 1, Svetek 2, Godfrey 1
