The win preserved Shawnee’s place in a tie for first (with Carlisle) in the Buckeye Division standings with one division game left.
Madison, which honored its 2007 SWBL championship team before the game, drops to 8-12 overall and 4-8 in the SWBL.
“The guys were giving me the ball all night, and I just felt really good when I came to the gym this afternoon,” said Ketring, who finished with a game-high 20 points, including 11 in the final period. “That fourth quarter, I thought, ‘I’m a senior. This is probably for a league title. I have to step up.’ I told them I wanted the ball in my hands, and the guys did a great job getting the ball in my hands.”
His second of the two game-changing 3s — his fifth of the night — made it 37-31 with 3:08 left. Madison got a pair of free throws from Grant Whisman less than a minute later, but the Arrows (13-6, 10-1) were able to hold the Mohawks off the board the rest of the way while putting the game to bed at the free-throw line.
Ketring scored the last five points on six free throw attempts over the last 96 seconds.
“Late games are always tough,” Shawnee coach Dale Spitler Jr. said. “We knew Madison was going to bring it. This was a game they were waiting for and they have a lot of good young players, so we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. They played that big 1-2-3 zone on us, and they are long so they made us make some tough shots, but down the stretch we made enough plays, got a couple big shots, our defense held up and Kevin hit some free throws for us. It was a big win for us.
“We have one more league game left, so if we win it we have at least a share of the league title. It’s been a while since we won one, so that would be huge for us.”
Madison had trailed 10-2 less than three minutes into the game, but climbed back to within two, at 13-11, with a pair of 3s from Whisman and one from Donovan King to close the quarter.
Ethan Limon gave the Mohawks their first lead with a 3-pointer to open the second period, and the lead changed hands five more times before the Arrows were able to put the game away in the fourth quarter.
“I was proud of the effort,” Madison coach Jeff Smith said. “We did a lot of things we needed to do to have a chance to win. We were down two possessions with a couple minutes to go, and just didn’t make any big plays.
“We had to play small ball because they forced us to with speed and 3-point shooting on the floor, and we did a pretty good job adjusting. Our defense was pretty good and gave us a chance, but I think when they heated up, they made some good moves where they just surrounded their inside guy with four shooters, and that made it really tough to stay in our defense. We just didn’t get enough scoring at the end, and we missed some opportunities.”
Whisman led the Mohawks with 16 points, but no one else had more than five. Shawnee had just four players score points with Joey Bates also joining Ketring in double figures with 11 points.
Shawnee returns to action Saturday at Arcanum, while Madison hosts Cincinnati College Prep Academy on Wednesday.
“We haven’t won much in 2017, but hopefully the kids feel like they competed and had a chance to win,” Smith said. “We’re really young, so we know better times lie ahead.”
Preble Shawnee 13-8-8-13—42
Madison 11-7-11-4—33
PREBLE SHAWNEE (13-6, 10-1 SWBL Buckeye): Levi Lewis 2 0 6, Kevin Ketring 5 5 20, Chase Thompson 2 0 5, Joey Bates 5 1 11. Totals: 14-6-42
MADISON (8-12, 4-8 SWBL Buckeye): Donovan King 1 0 3, Ethan Limon 1 0 3, Ryan Duritsch 2 0 4, Cam Morgan 2 0 5, Grant Whisman 5 4 16, Kevin Duritsch 1 0 2. Totals: 12-4-33
3-pointers: PS 8 (Ketring 5, Lewis 2, Thompson), M 5 (Whisman 2, King, Limon, Morgan)
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