The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
US rallies past Gilmour
The spirited Gilmour-University rivalry, aka the Battle of SOM, has had one distinguishing feature shared by both its football and basketball iterations this school year-the comeback.
In October, the Lancers’ football team rallied from a 21-6 halftime deficit to stun the Preppers in the final minute, 26-21.
Four months later, University returned the favor on the basketball court, coming back from a sevenpoint deficit at the beginning of the fourth quarter to win a thriller over Gilmour, 59-53.
The game was tied at 5050 with three minutes to play. Coming out of a time out, University sophomore Nelson Johnson Jr. missed a 3, but grabbed his own rebound and passed to senior Faris Dahman, who found nothing but net on his wide-open attempt to put US up, 53-50.
Preppers’ freshman Justin Belcher sank two free throws after being fouled on a layup attempt, then Gilmour senior Andre Rodgers made an acrobatic layup through traffic and sank the ensuing free throw to make it 55-53 with 42 seconds to play.
Gilmour would not score again.
University’s 6-foot-7 senior Ricky Radtke drew a foul with 24 seconds left and converted both, giving the Preppers a 57-53 lead. After a Lancer miss, Radtke put an exclamation point on the win with an emphatic two-handed dunk of a teammate’s miss for the final margin.
“We’ve been having kind of an up and down year, playing good and playing terribly,” Radtke said. “Beating (Gilmour), especially tonight, was a lot of fun. Ever since I was a freshman, we’d get killed by them. It’s nice to get a win in my senior year and end on a good note.”
Radtke tied for gamehigh scoring honors with 17 points, and added 12 rebounds for a double-double. Six of his boards came during the fourth quarter rally.
Gilmour (7-9) led for all of the first half, and most of the third quarter. The Lancers’ zone and man defenses made things tough for the Preppers, and the sharp-shooting Dahman in particular.
Dahman, held to six points on 2 of 11 shooting through the first three frames, scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, and tied Radtke with a game-high 17 points, sinking five 3s.
“It was a big-time confidence-booster hitting that first (three) in the fourth quarter,” said Dahman, who would convert 3 of 5 outside the arc in the fourth. “I just knew that I had to keep going to help my team win.”
It was the Lancers making most of the big shots and plays early on, although both teams struggled against the other’s defensive sets.
Gilmour held sevenpoint leads three times in the second quarter, and its lead reached 27-19 on a 3 by Ryan Mueller on a Rodgers assist. Johnson hit a free throw for University to make it 27-20 at halftime.
Six-foot-5 senior Ben DeMell, who led Gilmour with 16 points and 12 rebounds, poured in nine points in the third quarter. University rallied to tie the game at 34-34 on a putback by Johnson, but Gilmour closed the stanza on a 10-3 run to go back up by seven, 44-37.
“I’m so proud of our kids’ effort, battling back from a tough loss last night,” Gilmour coach Dan DeCrane said, referring to the Lancers’ 62-53 loss to Walsh Jesuit on Feb.12. “We played good opponents all weekend, just came up a little bit short, a couple plays here and there. They got a couple straight-line drives towards the end of the game, and they hit a couple big threes too in the fourth quarter.