Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
WAVERLY — The idea that, in the tournament, you have to “survive and advance,” could not have been more fitting on Friday night.
South Point and Eastern Brown threw everything it had at one another, trading critical baskets, missed free throws from both teams at big moments and needed defensive stops in between it all.
In the end, though, the Pointers (14-9) got the chance to defend their district crown as they survived a relentless Warrior attack and took home a narrow 50-48 victory in a Division III sectional final.
“This was a battle of two teams who play completely different styles. Eastern Brown is a very physical team who runs their stuff very well under head coach Rob Beucler,” South Point coach Travis Wise said. “We’re more of a guard-oriented team that likes to run up and down the court and make the game a lot faster. We played well defensively on their bigs and managed some stops when we needed them. The most important thing is we won and our season is still going.”
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
Make no mistake … this was a complete war in the final minutes. But it didn’t start that way. South Point was aggressive out of the gates and threw the first punch.
The Pointers’ quick hands on the defensive end led to four early Eastern Brown turnovers, which turned into buckets from Xathan Haney, Caleb Lovely, Carter Smith and Brayden Hanshaw on the other end.
Before the Warriors could blink, SP had an 11-0 lead.
However, the Warriors (17-7) responded with buckets from Braxton Vance, Wyatt Haupt, Grady Barber and Kade Walkup to end the frame on a 12-3 rub, cutting the deficit to 14-12.
“Getting ahead to that early start definitely gave us some early confidence,” Wise said. “It was needed, considering they made a heck of a comeback to end the quarter. We knew it was going to be a battle from that point on.”
The game stayed a one-two possession contest for the rest of the half as both teams had an answer for anything thrown their way.
In the end, Eastern Brown was never able to get a lead in the first 16 minutes, trailing the Pointers by a 28-26 tally at halftime.
In the third, Lovely scored and Haney knocked in two free throws before Smith and Josh Childers buried back-to-back 3’s. The triples capped a 10-2 run to open the quarter, extending the lead to 38-28.
That was the second big blow to the Warriors as they were left to try and catch, trailing 43-35 heading into the fourth quarter following a Hanshaw bucket.
With eight minutes potentially left in their season, the Warriors needed a spark and Vance provided it. After Walkup buried a triple, Vance followed with one of his own, followed by a tough bucket to cap an 8-3 run that closed the gap to 46-43.
PHOTOS: Images from South Point’s sectional final win over Eastern Brown
For the next three minutes, South Point decided to melt clock. Meanwhile, the Warriors forced a couple turnovers but couldn’t turn them into baskets on the other end. Then, with 1:18 left, Smith buried a 15-footer to put the Pointers ahead 48-43.
“That was a huge shot in that situation. Every player had their struggles tonight from the floor, but him being a senior and shooting it with that level of confidence was critical,” Wise said. “It was a good shot to take, one where he got to his spot and rose up. He wasn’t going down without a fight.”
However, the Pointers weren’t out of the woods just yet.
Barber buried a triple and Walkup drilled two free throws to bring the deficit to 49-48 with less than five seconds left.
After making the first free throw on the other end, South Point missed the second as the Warriors rebounded the ball and put up a half-court heave as the buzzer sounded.
The ball hit off the left side of the iron and bounced to the floor, sending the Pointers back to the Convo.
“We definitely put ourselves in that position by committing late turnovers and not making our free throws. Not many times will you shoot 12-of-26 at the line and still win a game,” Wise said. “Us being an experienced team from last year and going through those battles where we gave a couple of games away in these types of situations definitely helped tonight.”
Lovely finished with a team-high 12 points and five rebounds, Smith added 10 points, and Hanshaw had nine points and seven rebounds.
For Eastern Brown, Barber finished with a game-high 19 points and eight rebounds. Walkup added 14 points, and Vance had nine points and 12 rebounds.
South Point returns to action at 3 p.m. on March 3 at Ohio University’s Convocation Center against top-seeded Wheelersburg.
“We have to do a better job of not giving up so many paint touches. No. 42 [Grady Barber] got a lot of touches inside and really hurt us, so we have to pressure high and get backside help,” Wise said. “Wheelersburg is a really good team that has excellent guard play, so having backside help and making shots more difficult is going to be crucial for us.”
POWERED BY HORIZON
