Winfield-Mt. Union's Andrew Brown doesn’t take many shots, but the Wolves’ senior guard was still ready for his opportunities on Saturday.
Trailing Hillcrest Academy 42-32, Brown hit three shots from beyond the arc during a fourth-quarter run that sent the game to overtime, where WMU came away with a 59-56 win.
“It was a crazy game, both teams played really hard,” Hillcrest coach Dwight Gingerich said. “It felt like we were in a good spot there, going into the fourth quarter. Our kids are disappointed. I think that they really felt like we had a great opportunity at that point, and let it slip away.
“Credit to Winfield, they made some huge plays in the fourth quarter and did enough to get the W.”
The shot clock was winding down with about 1:40 left in the game when Seth Ours pulled up and drained his fifth 3-pointer of the game to put the Ravens up 51-47.
But Abram Edwards scored on two of the next three WMU possessions and Hillcrest was unable to convert the game-winning layup with five seconds left. Edwards led the Wolves with 22 points on 11-of-20 shooting.
Luke Schrock hit a 3-pointer to give Hillcrest a 56-55 lead midway through the overtime, but those would be the final points for the Ravens.
Cam Buffington, who sat in the second quarter due to foul trouble, scored six of his 17 points in overtime to take the three-point lead. And the Ravens’ tying 3-pointer missed the mark in the closing seconds.
The Ravens kept the 6-foot-4 Buffington and 6-foot-6 Edwards from dominating the offensive glass for most of the night, but the Wolves scored six of their eight points in overtime following offensive rebounds. Buffington finished with five offensive boards and 15 total rebounds.
In the third quarter, neither team had led by more than four points when Ours hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Ravens up 36-30. Schrock would score the next four points to extend the run to 10-0.
Ours ended a 10-0 WMU run with a 3-pointer to make it 45-42. Brown hit the tying shot for the Wolves. Grant Bender answered from outside. Buffington pulled the Ravens within a point, and then Ours hit again from the 3-point line. He finished with 23 points in the loss.
“I’m really proud of the effort of our guys,” Gingerich said. “Seth made some big plays late when he was battling to be able to even get up and walk. Our trainer, Chuck Miller, kind of took care of him during timeout and he said he’s ready to go. So you’ve got to be proud of that kind of effort on Seth’s part just to play through that.”
Schrock scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half and overtime. Bender scored 10 points in the paint in the first half and drew a couple of big fouls from Buffington. Bender finished with 13.
“I thought (Bender) played a ton of minutes tonight, and I know that he’s not feeling the best,” Gingerich said. “He put a lot out there, proud of his effort. We got some good minutes off the bench. Jace Rempel gave us a lot of good minutes tonight. Bryce Bailey came in, Rowan Miller, Mason (Bender), our three young guys came in and just gave us some important minutes.”
Bailey and Miller each scored a bucket during a 13-5 run in that put the Ravens up 26-22 in the second quarter.
“What a great game for our conference and for the two teams here,” Gingerich said. “And at this point, it’s still early in the year and there’s a lot we can take from this game and improve. But again, I like the effort of our guys, and it’s something to build on.”
Hillcrest 81, L-M 67
Grant Bender scored a career-high 41 points in the Ravens’ road victory on Friday. At the time, his 41 points on 17-of-20 shooting was tied for the state lead for most points in a single game this season. He also had six steals.
The Ravens led 27-14 after one quarter, but the Falcons scored 21 in the second quarter to cut the lead to eight. But there was no slowing the Hillcrest offense on Friday. Seth Ours finished with 16 points and six assists on 3-of-7 shooting from the 3-point line. Jace Rempel had nine points, eight assists, and six steals, while Luke Schrock added eight points and eight assists.
Ty Northup led the Falcons with 27.
