Shelby rallies for double-overtime victory at River Valley in boys basketball
CALEDONIA ― Shelby hadn't held a lead since midway through the first quarter and it trailed River Valley by as many as 15 points in the second half.
"We have some really tough kids on our team. That’s basketball," Shelby boys basketball coach Greg Gallaway said. "Every team is going to go on runs, and our guys stayed the course and stayed one possession at a time and fought back. I’m proud of them."
The Whippets never led in the third or fourth quarters, but still forced overtime. In the first overtime, again they never led, but it went to a second OT where they finally prevailed 75-73 Saturday night to take sole possession of first place in the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference standings.
"With a game like tonight, we knew it was going to be a series of runs for both teams and it was what team can handle those runs the best. We stayed the course," Gallaway said.
The Whippets scored on their first three possession of the game, while RV All-Ohio guard Carson Smith picked up two fouls in the first 90 seconds. Nevertheless, the Vikings settled down and took a 11-10 lead with three minutes left on a Carson Myers drive.
River Valley led or it was tied for the next 34-plus minutes on the clock. In that time, RV went on a 13-0 run to take a 20-10 lead early in the second period, but Shelby came back to tie the game at 26 with 2:14 left in the half helped by three 3-pointers from Brayden Devito and Bryson Baker and an Isaiah Ramsey layup. A rebound basket and a driving layup from Chase Ebert helped stake RV to a 32-26 halftime edge.
In the first 90 seconds if the second half, RV turned it over three times and Shelby responded by tying it up at 32-32. The Vikings then went on an immediate 19-4 run to forge a 51-36 lead with 1:37 left in the third period.
"Mentally it can take a toll on 15-, 16- and 17-year-old kids when a team goes on a 10-0 run, but we’ve got competitors that are playing the next possession. It’s a credit to our guys. I’m really proud of them," Gallaway said.
Shelby trimmed it to 51-40 by the end of the quarter, then to 61-55 with under four minutes left in the fourth period. The Whippets continued chipping away at it, tying it again at 61 after a Devito fastbreak layup and at 62 from a Ramsey free throw.
River Valley had the ball for a final shot with 1.5 seconds left but the Smith leaner from out top didn't go.
In the first overtime, the Vikings again led early, taking a 67-62 edge with 2:02 left, but the Whippets tied it with a baseline runner from Devito and 3-point play in transition from Alex Bruskotter with 35 seconds to go. RV again held for a final shot, getting a contested layup that didn't fall.
In the second overtime, Bruskotter scored from the block with 1:39 left to give Shelby it's first lead since the first period at 71-70. Ramsey added to it after his team's steal led to his layup 14 seconds later, but Smith answered with a 3-pointer from the left wing to knot it at 73.
With 42 seconds left, Ramsey hit a foul shot. RV missed a bucket in the lane with 19 seconds remaining, and Casey Lantz made a free throw with nine seconds left for a 75-73 advantage.
On its final play, RV went for the win as Smith dished inside to Brock Mosher who kicked it to the corner to Myers for a 3-pointer at the buzzer that rimmed out.
"They had the last possession at the end of each period, and our guys stayed connected. Man, that shot looked like it was going in in the corner. Credit to our guys staying the course and finishing the game," Gallaway said.
It was a gut-punch of a loss for an RV team that controlled most of the game and is searching for its first league crown since 2007 in boys basketball.
"I told them they played their butts off and they did," RV coach Rodney Brown said of his message to the team after the loss. "They played really hard. We’ve got to make free throws. That killed us."
The Vikes were just 6 of 15 from the foul line.
Brown said his squad was obviously disappointed in the way the game ended.
"They knew they played hard. It’s a veteran group, and they knew they let that one slip away," Brown said. "They know. They know. You don’t want to beat a dead horse and tell them you did this and you did that. I tried not to. You played really hard and somebody’s got to lose."
While River Valley lost first place Saturday night, it didn't lose the conference just yet. At 14-5 overall and 10-2 in the league, the Vikes finish up MOAC play with road games at Highland (6-13, 0-12) and Galion (6-12, 3-9). Meanwhile, Shelby (16-2, 11-1) has a home game with Clear Fork (6-13, 2-10) and goes to Ontario (11-7, 8-4), which could play a spoiler.
"We have a lot to still play for, and we have got to get ready for the tournament," Brown said. "We’ve got league games left. I told them I was proud of them, and they played really hard. We just made some mistakes here and there that kind of hurt us."
Brown said they tried to slow the tempo down the stretch by taking care of the basketball and limiting bad shots.
"I thought we did a pretty good job of that," he said. "We were able to get fouled, and we were able to have the guys we want to go to the free throw line go to the free throw line and they just didn’t go in. That’s a fixable thing. These guys shoot free throws all the time, and we have certain rules with our free throws. It’s not like it’s something we don’t do every day.
"I said maybe this lights a fire under us. It makes you mad and makes you want to work harder."
Ebert scored 22 for RV, followed by 17 from Smith and 16 from Myers.
"Shelby’s obviously a great basketball team, and that was a great basketball game," Brown said. "Double overtime for the league title, it just stinks that we’re not the ones celebrating."
Gallaway acknowledged more work lies ahead if the Whippets are to win a fourth straight MOAC title.
"We’re playing basketball to be in games like this," he said. "This is the situation we want to be in at the end of the year with a chance to compete for a conference championship on the road in a great atmosphere. Our guys don’t shy away from that. They enjoy it, and that’s the thing I love about these guys. They’re battled tested and want to go out and compete in great environments like tonight."
Bruskotter paced the Whippets with 25 points, while Lantz added 17, Devito 12, Ramsey 10 and Baker eight.
"Our chemistry has been great this year, but when you get to the end of the season, you just want to play your best basketball. I think this is another building game for us," Gallaway said. "We’re not looking ahead to the tournament. We want to finish the regular season out. I think our guys are going to continue to regroup and stay focused on our goals."
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This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Shelby rallies for two overtime victory at River Valley
