Whippets win wild one 85-74
Daily Globe Sports Editor
Double-digit leads were not safe Thursday night in the Dawg House.
Both Shelby and River Valley wasted 12-point leads during their Mid Ohio Athletic Conference boys basketball battle.
Eventually, the Whippets put together one big burst in the fourth quarter to upend the Vikings 85-74.
After outdueling the visitors 32-14 in the fourth, the win improved the SHS ledger to 5-0 in the MOAC and 8-1 overall. More importantly, the red and gray now possess a two-game lead in the conference standings over River Valley, Ontario and Marion Harding, who all check in with two league losses.
The Vikings and Warriors both entered the evening’s play with one league each. Ontario dropped a 61-54 loss to Marion Pleasant while Harding bested Clear Fork 43-35.
“We started out in our run and jump defense and it worked well as we forced some turnovers,” said red and gray Nathan Loney as his club sprinted out to an 13-2 edge in the first 3 1/2 minutes.
“Then we got excited being up 12-14 points and all of the sudden forgot who we were guarding and didn’t get hands up on their shooters,” continued the coach. “At halftime I told the kids they were a little excited and needed to relax.”
SHS stretched the lead to 30-18 early in the second quarter and then watched the Vikings run off 12 unanswered points to tie the game at 30-all.
Shelby would fall behind, but regrouped enough to grab a 36-35 lead at halftime.
After getting ambushed for 46 points over the middle two quarters and trailing by a dozen, Shelby was down 60-53 entering the final eight minutes of action.
Dylan Johnson’s three to begin the fourth put the Vikings ahead 63-53, but the Whippets clawed back with the help of a number of defensive stops while running off eight unanswered points. T.J. Pugh scooped up a loose ball under his own hoop and laid it back in to make it 63-61 with 5 1/2 minutes left.
Johnson drained another three to briefly stop the River Valley bleeding and then Pugh took control of matters with consecutive three balls and two free throws to vault SHS in front 69-66 with 3:23 to go.
Shelby never trailed again and Pugh single handedly outscored the visitors by himself with 20 points over the final eight minutes as he finished with a career-best 41 that ranks No. 13 on the all-time single game scoring list. The senior has been on a tear with previous games of 38 and 34 points.
The Whippets got the lead to 10 (78-68) when Andre Hill rebounded a teammate’s miss and dropped in a reverse layup with 82 seconds remaining.
Loney said the turnaround in the fourth quarter happened because “the guys were doing what they were coached to do.”
Throughout the game, the SHS coach felt his team was selfish and said that was disappointing.
“At the time where we had the stretch and erased the deficit and take the lead, we played great team basketball. As soon as we got up, we had multiple times we could have thrown the ball ahead for easy layups, but we were selfish. We have to be better than that. Our team basketball was not as good as it has been the past two games and we’ll work on that.”
Also reaching double digits for Shelby was Cody Lantz with 15. Teammates Brazure Roberts and Marshall Shepherd each had eight.
River Valley, which falls 4-2 in the MOAC and 5-7 overall, received a 30-point night from Ethan Bell and 22 from Dylan Johnson. Karson Lang added 12.
The Whippets are back in action Saturday night at Clear Fork.
RIVER VALLEY (74)
Johnson 7 3 22, Lang 6 0 12, Bell 12 3 30, Kenney 1 0 2, Dranschak 2 0 4, Henderson 2 0 4, Totals 30 6 74.
SHELBY (85)
Roberts 3 0 8, Shepherd 2 4 8, Pugh 14 10 41, Lantz 6 2 15, Hill 3 0 7, Holloway 3 0 6, Totals 31 16 85. Rivervalley ...... 14212514—74 Shelby ............... 25111732—85
Three-point field goals — Johnson (R) 5, Bell (R) 3, Roberts (S) 2, Pugh (S) 3, Lantz (S), Hill (S).
Jadyn Mcpherson competes in the 200-meter freestyle during Thursday’s home meet against Big Walnut and Crestline.