Wilmington (13-9) advances to the sectional final Saturday against Oak Hills (21-3), which beat Edgewood 53-29 in the second game of the night. Middletown finishes 8-16 in Darnell Hoskins’ first season.
“That’s been the epitome of our season,” Hoskins said of the comeback falling short. “We consistently have chosen to dig a hole for ourselves, and we have to expend a ton of energy to come back and get back in the ballgame. Unfortunately, tonight it came back to bite us. Resilient effort by our bunch, but that’s just how it goes. I can’t think of a more valiant way to go out. Our kids gave it their best shot, and we just came up on the losing end.”
Middletown trailed the first 20-plus minutes of the game, including by a 30-17 score at halftime, but opened the third quarter on an 11-0 run to start the comeback. The Middies eventually tied the game on Cliff Snow’s three-point play with 3:21 left in the period and evened the score five more times, but couldn’t get the stop on the ensuing Hurricane possessions in the fourth quarter to give themselves a chance for the lead.
Their last opportunity to do so came when Snow’s wide open 3-pointer bounced off the inside of the rim with 8.7 seconds left. Wilmington’s Dylan Beaugard sealed the win going 4 of 4 from the free-throw line in the closing seconds.
“Our preparation was really, really good,” Hurricane coach Mike Noszka said. “We put a lot of time into our shooting, especially late in the season. Our offense has been an issue all along, but we handled the ball well and we shot it really well in the first half. What hurt us was we missed layups to start the second half, and when you miss layups it leads to the run-outs, but they came out with purpose, absolutely, in the second half. I was just proud of the kids, that we punched first, they counterpunched, and we were able to hold on.”
Wilmington took the first seven points of the game and was up 30-13 with 3:28 left in the second quarter with help from Matthew Smith’s four 3-pointers. They shot 60 percent as a team for the first half, while Middletown struggled on both ends of the floor and made just 6 of 25 field-goal attempts.
Middletown used the momentum from some early stops at the rim in the third quarter to find its stride on offense for the remainder. Snow and Nelson Rutledge finished with a team-high 13 points, while Beaugard led Wilmington with 18 points.
“We paid attention to detail defensively a little bit, and we understood it was win or go home, so a sense of desperation creeped in too,” Hoskins said. “Hopefully for our younger guys, they understand the magnitude of coming out ready to play and not digging a hole for yourself, what it actually means. We will regroup, have a great spring, summer and fall, and come back ready next year.”
Oak Hills 53, Edgewood 29: The Cougars had an 8-5 lead midway through the first quarter but didn't score again until Drew Reckart's buzzer-beating 3-pointer going into halftime.
From there, the Highlanders were in control, turning an 18-11 halftime advantage into the easy win as Ryan Batte scored 15 of his game-high 22 points in the third quarter to put the game out of reach for the Cougars (15-9).
“We were very heavy on ball control in the first half,” Edgewood coach John Thomas said. “We were trying to keep it a low-possession game, and we took a chance by opening it up a little bit after halftime, and you saw what happened.”
Eddie Driskell led Edgewood with 15 points, including scoring all eight of his team’s first-quarter points. No one else on the team had more than three points.
The Cougars finished with 14 turnovers, shot 34.5 percent and were outrebounded 31-19.
“That’s a really good basketball team, Oak Hills, and I can’t say enough good things about (coach) Mike Price,” Thomas said. “Ever since I’ve been coaching, he’s been a great coach to talk to. He does a tremendous job, and I hope he goes all the way.”
Middletown 12-5-20-9—46
Wilmington 17-13-7-13—50
MIDDLETOWN (8-16): Nelson Rutledge 5 1 13, Cliff Snow 5 1 13, Aaron Jones 2 2 7, Christian Strother 3 2 8, Jomar Bailey 2 1 5. Totals: 17-7-46
WILMINGTON (13-9): Layne Griffith 1 0 3, Matthew Smith 4 0 12, Dylan Beaugard 5 7 18, Jeffery Mansfield 4 2 10, Chris Wolary 3 0 7. Totals: 17-9-50
3-pointers: M 5 (Rutledge 2, Snow 2, Jones), W 7 (Smith 4, Griffith, Beaugard, Wolary)
Edgewood 8-3-10-8—29
Oak Hills 12-6-24-11—53
EDGEWOOD (15-9): Tyrevis Hill 1 1 3, Drew Reckart 1 0 3, Trent Allen 1 0 2, Austin Scott 1 0 2, Ethan McCarty 0 1 1, Eddie Driskell 5 3 15, Garrett Gabbard 1 0 3. Totals 10-5-29
OAK HILLS (21-3): Nick Deifel 1 0 2, Jacob Berkemeier 1 0 2, Kyle Spille 0 1 1, Jacob Woycke 0 1 1, Isaac Holmes 2 0 4, Nick Strader 0 1 1, Cam Naber 2 2 6, Luke Rudy 5 1 14, Ryan Batte 8 5 22. Totals: 19-11-53
3-pointers: E 4 (Driskell 2, Reckart, Gabbard); O 4 (Rudy 3, Batte)
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