The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Oberlin also gets share of LC8 crown
The Oberlin Phoenix lived up to their nickname and they can claim a part of conference title because of it.
The Phoenix found themselves on the deck early trailing by as many as 15 points against Clearview before rising from the ashes like their mythical namesake to post a 65-60 win before a raucous home crowd.
The win has so many implications.
It allowed Oberlin to cap its regular season with a win on senior night.
More importantly, it gave the Phoenix a share of the Lorain County 8 title.
Because Columbia lost to Keystone creating a three-way tie for the LC8 crown.
Oberlin, Keystone and Columbia all finished the LC8 with identical 10-4 records in the conference.
Clearview led by as many as 15 in the first half, but Oberlin outscored the visitors 5030 the rest of the way to pull out the win and the share of a conference crown.
Oberlin finished the regular season 16-6 and will play Berkshire at home on Feb. 25 to open tournament play. Clearview ends the regular season 12-9, 9-5 in the LC8,, and opens tournament play on Feb. 25 at Cloverleaf.
Coming from behind was not foreign ground for Oberlin, according to its coach, Kurt Russell. It trailed Clearview by 20 the last time the team’s met in January before losing by 2 and had other doubledigit comebacks during the year.
“Resilience,” Russell said, when asked what keyed his team’s comeback. “We’ve been there before. The thing about these kids is they don’t panic. We just find a way to battle back.”
Clearview had no answer for Oberlin’s big man Aaron Hopkins. The bulky 6-foot-3 senior finished the night 18 points and six rebounds. He exploded for 16 of those points in the second half to help key the comeback for the Phoenix, which trailed 31-23 at the half.
“We stepped up as seniors,” said Hopkins after the game as his teammates cut down the nets to celebrate the conference title and rap music blared in the Oberlin gym. “Clearview had nobody for me. I knew from the jump they couldn’t guard me. I was just waiting for the guards to get me the ball.”
Russell elected to go with a small line up early, but when Oberlin fell behind he opted to pound the ball inside to Hopkins.
“He played well,” Russell said of Hopkins. “We thought we could go with a smaller lineup but then we
realized we needed someone down low. I thought Aaron did a good job of commanding the post area.”
He was far from the only star. Senior guard Giles Harrell scored 18 and had some acrobatic driving layups and clutch 3-pointers during the stirring comeback.
He drained a 3-pointer to cap a 7-0 run to start the fourth quarter that had the crowd going crazy and gave the Phoenix a 5142 lead.
Sophomore Ty Locklear provided energy that helped jumpstart the comeback. He finished with nine points, five rebounds and two steals.
Clearview got 18 points from Chase Christensen and a monster effort from senior Joe Norris who scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Samuel Clark added 10 points for the Clippers.
Clearview would have shared the conference title with a win. Instead it saw its nine-game winning streak come to an end.
“They came out in that third and Harrell and Hopkins really got rolling and we couldn’t find the basket. They had a lot of momentum and they are good when they have momentum,” Clearview coach John Szalay said.
So the regular season ended for the Phoenix just as Hopkins said he had imagined when practice started back in November.
“This journey has been hard. Sophomore year we won 11 or 12 games and junior year only won six and