Journal-News.com

CINCINNATI — The Badin High School boys basketball team went down to McNicholas and stole a victory Friday night, Dec. 19.

The Rams' Scott Staarmann stole a pass with 40 seconds left that led to a tiebreaking basket by Corey Van Natta, and Scott Purcell swiped a pass 10 seconds later, enabling Badin to put the finishing touches on a 49-43 triumph.

"Yeah, I definitely feel fortunate to win this one," Rams coach Nick Argentati said after watching his team improve to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the Greater Catholic League Central Division.

"But I told our guys a lot of it is because we've won close games this year and we won close games last year," Argentati continued. "Our kids have the expectation that if it's going down to the last couple of minutes, we're going to win the game."

The late steals accounted for two of five fourth-quarter turnovers for the Rockets, who didn't score in the final 2:28 and dropped to 0-2, 0-2 GCL Central.

"It came down to who was tougher at the end, not only physically but mentally as well," McNick coach Pat Stricker said. "We just got lazy on a couple of possessions at the end, and it cost us the basketball game."

Staarmann's poke-away steal with 40 seconds left led to an offensive stickback by Van Natta off a missed layup. The score put Badin up 45-43 and marked the ninth lead change of the back-and-forth game.

McNick tried to rush the ball up the court right after Van Natta's bucket, but Purcell jumped in front of a long, cross-court pass and raced to the other end of the floor and waited to be fouled.

"It wasn't a very good pass, and I just read it," said Purcell, who finished with a game-high 15 points, eight of which came in the fourth quarter.

Purcell went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in the final 16 seconds, which led to a big sigh of relief for Rams fans who watched Badin make just six of its first 20 free throws. The Rams finished 12-of-26.

"You just have to have a short memory," Purcell said, referring to all the early misses. "When your team needs to step up at the end like that, you just have to have faith that you're going to make it."

Colton Mehlman added 10 points and four rebounds, while Van Natta threw in nine points and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds, four of which came on the offensive end.

The Rams led by four at halftime, but the Rockets tied the game with two quick buckets in the third quarter, and neither team led by more than two points until Purcell put Badin up by four with 16.5 seconds left.

"It was a typical GCL game with bodies flying everywhere and six or seven guys on the floor going after loose balls," Argentati said. "We didn't shoot the ball very well. We just gutted it out."

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2193 or jmorrison@coxohio.com.