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Home > Blogs > Springfield, Ohio High School Sports > Archives > 2009 > February > 05
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Coach, hypnotize me?!
Coaches will do anything to win a basketball game.
The night after the board ordered the hypnosis to stop, St. John beat Western Plains 53-43 in Ransom. Before the game, Western Plains assistant coach Jerod Horchem said he wasn’t concerned that his team’s opponents had used hypnotism. He noted that it doesn’t matter what motivational method is used if it brings a team together. “If we did something like that we’d probably hypnotize our guys, they’d fall asleep and never wake up,” Horchem said. “But if that would make them shoot better and I could do that in the next 10 minutes, then get me a watch on a string.”
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Video of Florence’s heave against Mechanicsburg
A few weeks ago, Southeastern’s Reed Florence nailed an 80-foot heave off a missed free throw with 1.1 second remaining before halftime in the Trojans win over Mechanicsburg.
At the time, it was a big play in the game that changed the momentum before the half. We’ve finally got some video.
Here’s a link to the game story.
Here’s the complete video:
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On this date in area sports history…
On this date seven years ago, Feb. 5, 2002, the Southeastern boys basketball, ranked No. 1 in Division IV, escaped Cedarville with a 36-33 victory to win the first Ohio Heritage Conference boys basketball title.
Published in the Feb. 6, 2002 edition of the News-Sun:
STILL PERFECT, BARELY
TROJANS ESCAPE WITH OHC TITLE, WIN MARK
By KEVIN VAN BRIMMER, News-Sun Sports Writer
CEDARVILLE — Cedarville HAD Southeastern.
The Indians had the No. 1 team in the state, its perfect season, its school record for wins and its hopes for sole possession of the conference title in their hands and the fist was slowly closing.
Then Cedarville lost its grip as the basketball bounced across the floor with one minute to play. Mark Waddle got a diving grip on the ball, and the game, and led the Trojans to gutsy 36-33 comeback victory.
“Mark Waddle played as well (tonight) as he’s played all season,” said Trojans forward Brian Cooper. “He stepped up. He made a lot of clutch free throws. I’m real proud of Mark.”
Waddle, a senior, loaded the faltering Trojans (18-0, 12-0 OHC) on his back, both offensively and defensively, in the final five minutes and scored nine of Southeastern’s 13 fourth-quarter points.
Waddle’s pure hustle effort in the closing minutes included being a front man in the Trojans’ devastating 1-3-1 trapping press, where he came up with the game’s biggest steal. And he drained 7 of 7 free throws in the fourth quarter. It was just the boost Southeastern needed.
“It comes down to senior leadership,” said Trojans coach Aaron Perry. “He had faith in himself and in his teammates. That’s what seniors do: They will their teams to victory. That’s what he did in the fourth quarter for us.”
With the win, Southeastern staked claim to the outright Ohio Heritage Conference championship and won its 18th straight game, a new school record.
But the Trojans nearly were forced to settle for a 17-game winning streak. It was evident from the opening minute of the game that Cedarville (12-6, 8-4) was not prepared to go away quietly this time. The Indians had suffered a 22-point loss in the teams’ first matchup.
The Indians fed off the electricity flowing from the crowd that packed the gym to the rafters. The south wall still bears the words “KTC Champions,” above dozens of years in nearly a dozen sports. Cedarville, which entered the game still in the hunt for the first OHC title, wasn’t going to allow Southeastern a waltz to the banner.
The Indians played tenacious defense, hounding the Trojans’ guards. They also fronted and double-, some times triple-teamed Cooper in the paint. They forced Southeastern to take bad shot after bad shot while methodically and patiently working the ball toward the hoop on the offensive end.
“I think … we were very patient offensively and we made them work on defense,” said Cedarville coach P.J. Bertemes. “I think that wears you down. All of a sudden, your transition’s not as fast and your offense isn’t fluid because you’re a lot more tired.”
The result was Southeastern (which had averaged 67 points a game coming in) posting just 15 first-half points, a mere five in the second quarter, and going into the locker room trailing by four.
The third quarter was more of the same with errant Southeastern shots clanging off the rim, bounding off the backboard or missing entirely from the sides. By the time the fourth quarter began, the Indians lead had grown to seven at 30-23.
Content to slow the game even more, Cedarville went almost immediately into a stall offense, looking to take only sure shots from inside eight feet and keep the ball out of the Trojans’ hands.
But only three points in the final eight minutes spelled doom.
“For three and a half quarters, they physically and mentally beat us,” Perry said.
Then Waddle stepped up after a timeout in which Perry expressed the need for his team to trap, scrap and get the ball.
“We had to make them make decisions and make them make plays because they were starting to slow it down and wanted to keep the game in the 20s,” Perry said. “We had to get more action defensively to throw us into offensive situations and score some points.”
A minute later, Waddle grabbed a rebound off a Micah Harding miss and got the foul, sending him to the line for a 1-and-1. He hit both.
Southeastern followed the make with the 1-3-1 trap and forced a turnover. Cooper, who had 10 points, 10 rebounds and six steals, converted on a hotly-contested 18-foot jumper to cut the lead to 30-27.
Harding stretched lead back to four with a free throw, one of his game-high 15 points.
Waddle answered that with two foul shots then responded to a Ricky Willis bucket with a three-point play, closing the gap to one at 33-32 with 2:19 to go.
One minute later, Waddle was on the floor snatching the biggest steal of the night and getting the foul. He calmly hit both free throws, his sixth and seventh of the quarter, to give the Trojans the lead.
“l played hard and it happened to be my luck to get the ball and I stepped up to the line and hit them just like practice,” Waddle said.
One minute later, Cooper came up with a steal of his own, from Willis on the baseline, and sealed the win, the title and the school record with two free throws.
“We put ourselves in position to beat the No. 1 team in the state and we just didn’t make plays,” Bertemes said. “They picked up the pressure, and that’s when the game is on the line. Southeastern just made some plays down the stretch.”
Said Perry, “I’m proud of the boys. When they had to, they went out and made plays. Really good teams and championship teams do that, and they find ways to win close games.”
SOUTHEASTERN (36) — Rice 1 0-0 2, Clark 3 0-6 6, Waddle 3 8-9 14, Cooper 3 4-4 10, Poole 1 0-0 2, Kitchen 0 0-0 0, Workman 0 0-0 0, Graves 1 0-0 2, Bruns 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 12-19 36.
CEDARVILLE (33) — Kragel 0 0-0 0, Yoakum 1 0-0 3, Rost 0 0-0 0, Harding 6 3-4 15, Schlappi 4 3-3 11, Willis 1 0-1 2, Martindale 0 2-2 2. Totals 12 8-10 33.
Southeastern 10 15 23 36 Cedarville 11 19 30 33
Three-point goals: Southeastern none; Cedarville 1 (Yoakum). Records: Southeastern 18-0, 12-0 OHC; Cedarville 12-6, 8-4. Reserves: Southeastern 51 (Cheadeayne 13), Cedarville 35 (Reimer 13).
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