Derrick Webb, Managing Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
PEEBLES — Nine up, nine down.
And after Tuesday night’s finish, Eastern Brown may just have nine lives.
After the Warriors built a 16-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, all signs pointed to them shifting into cruise control en route to a runaway win.
But Peebles had other plans.
In what seemed to be — and had to be — an all-out blitz mode, the Indians chipped away at that deficit before taking a 70-68 lead with less than a minute to go.
It was, in a word, unbelievable.
However, it didn’t shake Eastern’s Sam Ramer. If anything, it emboldened him to step up in the biggest moment of his career thus far.
The junior found the elbow, received a pass from teammate Kayne Dotson and proceeded to bury a triple, putting the Warriors ahead for good with eight seconds left.
The 3-point bucket was the deciding score of a 71-70 win, keeping the Warriors (9-0, 5-0 SHAC) unbeaten and on top of the league standings.
“He had struggled shooting a little bit,” Eastern coach Rob Buechler said. “I’ve got a gym at the house and he comes out and shoots in the mornings at least once a week. We do a lot of shooting. He just had enough nerve to take that shot because early, he passed a couple up. We told them that if they missed, they had better get on the glass.”
Ramer’s 3 was the night’s most imperative score. But it couldn’t have happened without Dotson, who was phenomenal all night long.
The junior acted as the Warriors’ engine in command of the offense. He consistently found open teammates before ending the night with four points, six rebounds, a pair of steals and an eye-popping 13 assists.
“We’ve not had a kid over 10 assists in a long time,” Buechler said. “He was finding open guys. He’s not a scorer but he’s a hard-nosed player. He runs the floor and he thinks about the game pretty well. He’s got a lot of energy and he’s getting better. He’s gotten stronger and he’s making better decisions.”
PHOTOS: Images from Eastern’s win over Peebles
Peebles (8-1, 5-1 SHAC) didn’t waste any time getting the scoring started. Paxton Ryan found an open Josh McClary for a bucket just seven seconds into the action.
And with that, put simply, both teams were off to the races.
The Indians took a 4-0 lead with 6:16 left in the first quarter with a put back bucket from Grady Knechtly. And, when Knechtly scored again at the 5:07 mark, it ended a 6-0 run to kick things off.
Braxton Vance got Eastern on the board before Carter Cluxton later dialed long distance, giving the Warriors their first lead of the night at 9-8 with 2:21 left.
That lead would swell to 14-10 by the end of the frame after Ramer beat the buzzer with a lay-in.
The score remained nip and tuck in the second.
Eastern went ahead 20-14, only for the Indians to cut the deficit to one with a 5-0 run. With 4:12 remaining before halftime, Ryan hit a 3 to bring the two teams even at 22-22. And, when Bo Johnson followed suit a little over a minute later, it put Peebles in front at 25-24.
The Indians would hold that lead at the break by a 32-29 count.
“Free throws and turnovers hurt us tonight,” Buechler said. “[Peebles] was getting on the glass in the first half. They only had one offensive rebound in the second half and that was a big key. But early, they beat us. We weren’t boxing out and we talked about the effort at halftime, being ready to play.”
Whatever Buechler’s message was at halftime resonated with his team.
After facing a 35-31 deficit, the Warriors battled to take a 36-35 lead, thanks to a bucket from Chase Pinkerton. Peebles went back ahead at 37-36 but it was the last time the Indians would score for quite some time.
CREDIT: Raymond Gleadle/SOSA
Meanwhile, Eastern ripped off a 12-0 run — a pair of buckets from Dotson and scores from Vance, Pinkerton, Ramer and Matthew Dick — to go ahead 48-37 with 2:51 left in the third.
The Warriors took that momentum into the fourth, too, ahead 53-41.
But that’s when Ryan and Josh McClary began to cement their mark on the Indians’ score sheet.
After seeing their team fall behind by a 66-50 margin with less than five minutes to play, the energy-filled duo laced up their sneakers and went to work.
After a 3 from Peebles’ Connor Gross, Ryan got a floater to fall to make it 66-55 at the 4:14 mark. Dick scored on the other end to push the lead back to 13 at 68-55 but two free throws and a transition score from McClary eroded the deficit to 68-59.
When McClary scored again through contact, with 2:20 left, and then hit the ensuing foul shot, you could see life being breathed onto Peebles’ bench.
“You look back and evaluate all the time,” Buechler said. “We did a better job in the second half, but the fatigue part for us, I think it made us not move as much as we needed to. We knew this was going to be a tough one. They’re quick, they can shoot and they attack the basket.”
After a third turnover in as many possessions for Eastern, Ryan nailed two freebies for a 68-64 count. Then, with 1:42 left, after a fourth turnover, Colyn Sims scored through contact to bring the Indians to within a single point at 68-67.
On the other end, the Warriors missed a pair of free throws, giving way for Ryan to score three the old-fashioned way once again — putting the Indians ahead 70-68 with 16.8 seconds remaining.
That gave way for Dotson to find a cool, calm and collected Ramer on the elbow, who drilled a triple for the eventual win.
“This was a big win for us,” Buechler said. “We just talked about what we wanted to try and run late in the game. We didn’t even run what we called because it was a transition break. Sam took a dribble, stepped out and they didn’t guard him. He hit it.”
Ramer ended the night with 17 points and five rebounds while Cluxton added 17 points and five boards of his own. Chase Pinkerton also helped out with 14 points and eight rebounds.
Peebles was led by Ryan, who turned in a game-high 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting while McClary had 17 points to go along with five steals.
While the Indians attempt to bounce back on Friday at Fayetteville, Eastern is back in action the same evening, hosting Ripley.
“These are the games that you look back on and remember 40 years from now,” Buechler said. “I can remember losses that we had a long time ago and we should’ve won those games. You just look back on these types of games. These are the memories you try to create. But we have to just think about the next game. We’ll have to be able to turn [Ripley] over some, keep them off the glass and execute offensively.”
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