Meltdown at Meadowbrook Hiland lets big lead and District title slip away

  • By Kevin Lynch
  • March 18, 2010
  • 560
                        
The Hiland faithful filed out of Meadowbrook gymnasium Wednesday, March 10, in stunned silence, amazed at what they had just witnessed. The Shadyside Tigers had just overcome an 18-point halftime deficit to dethrone the Hawks as Eastern District champions by battling back to score a 55-50 victory. Shadyside came into the District semifinal with a spotless 22-0 record, but the Tigers found themselves reeling after the Hawks jumped out to a 40-22 lead at the half. Hiland couldn’t do anything wrong in the first half, while the Tigers tripped over their tails. Noah Boyd stuck back a pair of missed shots and then stroked a pair of 3-pointers, and Jason Miller added a triple to help the Hawks to a 21-9 lead after the opening eight minutes of action. In the second quarter, it was Jason Miller again who lit it up from downtown, busting a pair of 3-pointers as Hiland opened up a 40-22 lead at the break. That’s when things went south for the Hawks... in a hurry. “To try and simplify it, their willpower just exposed some of the things we don’t do real well; things that have hurt us in big games this year,” Hiland coach Mark Schlabach said. “They just willed themselves to that victory. We just didn’t have the toughness to overcome that. We knew they’d make their run. We talked about it at halftime. We just didn’t execute that second half from a toughness standpoint. “We warned our guys at halftime that everything was going our way in that first half,” Schlabach continued. “Loose balls were bouncing at us, they were missing shots. It wasn’t necessarily that we were making them miss, I just felt like everything went our way. And when things didn’t go our way in the second half, we just didn’t have the toughness to get a big rebound, to get a big stop, to make a layup or get fouled. We just didn’t have that toughness we needed to have.” Shadyside opened the third quarter with a backdoor bucket by Heath Brooks. The Hawks then turned the ball over and the Tigers misfired on a 3-pointer. Hiland missed a layup and the Tigers answered with a triple from Justin Andes. Another miscue by the Hawks led to a Shadyside layup by Dylan Kimble. After another Hiland miss, Nick Schuetz stroked a triple from the wing to cap a 10-0 run to open the third quarter, forcing Hiland to call a timeout. “That was a huge momentum swing,” Schlabach said. “The first two possessions we had a chance. There was a loose ball in the middle of the lane that we didn’t get, and then there was a long rebound and we didn’t get it. “Those were two possessions we should’ve had stops at the start of the second half, but they got a bucket and the next possession they got a three,” Schlabach continued. “The momentum and the way you play defensively really affects your offense. As much as anything for us, that struggle was the fact that we couldn’t stop them. When you don’t stop people, it just puts more and more pressure on the offense.” After the timeout, the Hawks worked it inside to Dylan Kaufman, who had been held in check most of the night by Kimble. Kaufman was unable to connect. Shadyside’s Schuetz split a pair of free throws, then the Hawks got a pair of missed shots and a turnover. Andes scored inside and, after another Hiland turnover, Ellis Brown stroked a jumper to trim the Hiland lead to 40-37 with less than a minute remaining in the third quarter. The Hawks came up empty on a short jumper and Andes stroked a deep 3-pointer to tie the game at 40-all as the third quarter came to a close. Hiland had 14 possessions in the third quarter and missed nine shots and turned the ball over five times. “I remember the State semifinals when we had a two-point quarter when I was coaching at Loudonville, but I don’t remember a zero point quarter,” Schlabach said. No one was more surprised by Hiland’s third-quarter collapse than Shadyside coach Ed Andes. “I never expected anything like this, especially against Hiland,” Andes said. “In the first half they were making shots and we weren’t making shots. Then in the second half, we started making some shots and our defense picked up. “For them not to score is a great tribute to our kids. This is a very good defensive team we’ve got. Usually our vision on offense is very good. In the first half we only had like four assists and we missed a ton of shots, which is not characteristic of our team. This is a special group. They just pick it up and play well together.” As far as what happened in the first half, the Tigers coach credited Hiland’s hustle. “They just out-hustled us in the first half,” he said. “They got rebounds, they got open looks, we weren’t even close to them like we should’ve been. They’ve got a lot of kids and on any night one of them can step up for Hiland. They played extremely well in the first half.” Brooks scored on a backdoor bunny to give Shadyside a 42-40 lead at the start of the fourth quarter, and Kaufman got to the foul line for two shots, the first two points for the Hawks in the second half. The lead seesawed back-and-forth with Hiland going ahead 47-45 on a Luke Burch three-point play. Tyler Cline evened things up for the Tigers, but Boyd put the Hawks ahead 49-47 with an inside bucket with 3:10 remaining in the game. Andes answered with a triple to put Shadyside back on top 50-49 with 2:55 left to play. The Hawks pulled even when Burch split a pair of free throws with 2:02 remaining, but a 3-pointer by Schuetz with 1:15 remaining in the game delivered the fatal blow to the Hawks. Hiland misfired on three 3-point attempts down the stretch as time ran out on the season. “We knew they’d make their run. We knew it wasn’t going to be a 20-point game the whole way,” Schlabach said. “To stop runs, you’ve got to rebound, and we didn’t rebound real well in the second half. They did a good job in the second half of making it tough and making us work very hard on every possession.” Hiland bows out with a 18-5 record. The 23-0 Tigers advance to face Bishop Rosecrans for the District title on Saturday. Boyd paced the Hiland offense with 14 points. Burch added 11. Jason Miller chipped in nine and Kaufman finished with eight. Jalen Miller and Braden Conn added four points apiece to account for Hiland’s 50 points. “Dylan Kimble guarded Kaufman. He guarded him last year. All year he was anxious to guard him again. When we got the opportunity to play Hiland, he said, ‘Coach, I’ve got Kaufman’,” Andes said. “He did a fantastic job on him. He knew his tendencies. That’s what puzzled us at the half; they were up 19 and Kaufman only had what, four points. That shows how well Hiland played in the first half.” The Hiland coach agreed with Andes’ assessment of Kimble’s defensive job on Kaufman. “I just think Kimble did a great job on him,” Schlabach said. “He didn’t let him penetrate, and Dylan couldn’t get to the rim against Kimble. He’s a good defender.”


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