Merry Christmas...and goodnight
Me-rry Christ-mas.
That was the chant that rang out from the Ashland student section midway through the fourth-quarter inside the Dungeon, two nights before the Christmas holiday, after Knights 5-foot-9-inch sophomore guard Brady Arnold snuck up from behind to pick the pocket of Arrows senior Greg Gallaway, turning, driving right baseline and throwing up an impossible straight up and down shot over 6-foot-3-inch senior forward Brandon Nardo, which reached its apex high above the backboard before coming down and whistling through the nylon to help West Holmes pull out a 54-52 victory over its Ohio Cardinal Conference (OCC) rival.
And after a third-quarter which saw the Arrows full-court pressure defense force the Knights into six backcourt turnovers – turning a one-point halftime lead into a 13-point advantage heading into the final eight minutes – when Arnold's bucket fell from the rafters and cut the Arrows' lead to only three, it probably did seem like the Knights were already re-gifting what the Arrows had dished out earlier in the evening.
"For 23 or 24 minutes it didn't feel that good tonight," said third-year West Holmes head coach Jim Lindeman, who watched his team jump out to a 10-4 first-quarter lead, as 6-foot-3-inch junior forward Ryan Neer hit a jumper, dropped in a layup, and got the Knights to 10 when he snuck behind Ashland's press and laid in an uncontested shot at the other end. "We brought them in the huddle when we were down 13 and said, 'Slow down and execute our press break, we're going to have an opportunity to win this. And guys believed in themselves."
It was easy to believe either team had a shot to win during the first-half, as Ashland responded to the Knights opening run with an 8-3 run of its own – spurred by a deep three from 6-foot senior guard Cooper Moretz, who hit from the right side while falling backwards and out of bounds, before coming back on the Arrows next possession and burying a little jumper from right of the lane.
That gave Ashland a 14-13 lead at the end of one, which the Arrows quickly turned into a 21-15 advantage early in the second quarter, on two straight layups from Nardo and another triple make from deep outside the right side of the arc by 6-foot junior Drew Delaney.
"If we work hard on defense it helps on offense," explained West Holmes 6-foot-3-inch junior forward Gabe Snyder, who drew the assignment of guarding the 2010-11 first-team All-OCC player, Nardo, and who brought the Knights back to within one, at 21-20, midway through the second, when he split a pair of free throws, muscled through the Ashland defense for a layup under the bucket, and hit a little stick back jumper from the middle of the lane. "We can just go do our thing."
Snyder continued to do his thing prior to the break, dropping in a left-handed baby hook while cutting through the paint, and burying a pair of shots from the charity stripe after drawing an offensive foul against Nardo.
"That's a good matchup," said Lindeman as his team went into halftime trailing 25-24. "Those are two very athletic, very strong young men who go hard at each other and it's always a fun matchup to watch.
"Gabe went at him tonight and the thing I liked about Gabe is you couldn't tell whether he was making or missing shots from the look on his face. He just kept going at them and along with that, he rebounded the heck out of the ball. He had 14 rebounds and did a good job inside."
Snyder would end the night with a double-double, leading all scorers with 16 points, to go along with his 14 boards, while holding Nardo to 10 points on only four made field goals.
"We knew going into it that Snyder was going to be a tough matchup for us with that strength and athletic ability," explained Ashland head coach Tim Fralick afterward. "Nardo's a tough guy too. He's an athletic forward that can really drive and step out and shoot it.
"Those matchups are definitely fun to watch and Snyder's only a junior so he's just going to keep on getting better."
But things kept on getting worse for Snyder and the Knights during quarter number three as Ashland senior Ryan Marquette stole the ball from Arnold on West Holmes' opening possession, feeding Nardo for an easy layup and a 27-24 Arrows lead.
Later, 6-foot-5-inch Ashland senior Ryan Sullivan picked off a backcourt pass and fed 6-foot-2-inch senior Zach Bernhard for a jumper along the left baseline to extend the lead to 36-29.
Then, after Arnold managed to beat the press and run the floor for a layup to make it 39-31 in favor of Ashland, Bernhard picked off the inbound pass at the beginning of the Knights next possession and pulled up for a jumper right of the lane, making it 41-31.
Ashland 6-foot-1-inch senior Marquise Jones stepped in front of the Knights' next inbound attempt and pushed the Arrows lead to 43-31 by draining a pair of free throws, after drawing contact from West Holmes senior Joey Gonzalez.
And after Jones was hit with a travelling call moments later the Ashland defense smothered Snyder, forcing the Knights junior to tip the inbound pass out of bounds to set up Ashland junior guard Jordan Blair for a three-pointer from the right corner, which made the score 46-31 in favor of the Arrows.
Twas' two nights before Christmas and all through the Knights house, not a creature was cheering, not even a mouse…and those Ashland fans who made the 30-mile trip to root on their team.
"We got automatic," explained Lindeman as the third-quarter came to a close with the Arrows leading 48-35. "We started going to what worked in the first-half, as far as going to spots, and you can't go to the same spots or they adjust.
"We needed to look for some different reads. A few times we just rushed. Instead of being strong and taking the five seconds we have, we just tried to get it out of our hands too quick.
"We were able to slow down, and bottom line is, when we broke it we got layups, when we didn't they got layups."
West Holmes got two layups off of two steals to start the fourth quarter – with Snyder going coast-to-coast after robbing Nardo and Arnold laying one in from the right side after 6-foot-6-inch junior Brock Macaulay took one away from Delaney – as the Knights trimmed the Ashland lead to 48-40.
After Neer dropped in an underhanded layup, driving through the lane, to narrow the lead to 49-44, Arnold picked Gallaway and rained down his floater over Nardo that brought the chants of Me-rry Christ-mas from the Ashland student section and brought West Holmes to within three, at 49-46.
Gonzalez tried to hand a gift right back to Gallaway on Ashland's next possession, sending the 5-foot-11-inch senior to the free throw line, where he promptly missed a pair, allowing Neer to clean the glass on an Arnold miss at the other end and put it back up and in, inching the Knights to within 49-48.
"Going into the fourth quarter we wanted to be aggressive without fouling and be aggressive without taking bad shots," explained Fralick after watching West Holmes junior guard Keaton Leppla put the Knights in front 50-49 with a driving layup at the 1:32 mark of quarter number four. "Unfortunately, we kind of took the foot off the gas pedal and we didn't get it done."
They did get it back to even at 52 apiece, when Gallaway split a pair from the line with 26 seconds remaining, before the Knights called timeout with only 19.7 showing on the clock.
"We just had to get focused and in the mindset that we weren't going to give up and we were going to win this game," explained Snyder as the Knights' 2010-11 and 2011-12 leading scorer, Arnold, dribbled the clock down to six seconds before making his move to the basket past Moretz.
"And what you saw was a very unselfish play by a guy who just as easily could have taken that shot," added Lindeman as he watched Arnold raised up to shoot from the left elbow, drawing the entire Ashland defense around him, before bouncing a pass through the lane, underneath the basket for Neer, who layed in an uncontested shot with 0.4 seconds remaining on the clock, giving the Knights the 54-52 victory and evening their season record at 3-3 (2-1 OCC).
"Brady made that play," said Neer after capping his 15-point night with the game-winner and joining Snyder (16 points) and Arnold (12) in double digits. "That's all I have to say, he made the play right there. That was Brady, not me.
"I believe in my teammates, we're playing unselfish and we won the game."
On the other side, Fralich said, "It's a tough one to take, but they're doing a great job over there. Brady Arnold is a great player, Snyder's a really tough kid, and that Neer kid is a great addition for them with everything they have already.
"It's the type of game that keeps you up at night as a coach and you try to find ways to make adjustments so if we're in that situation again we get better results," he added, after watching Gallaway lead the Arrows with 13 points, while Nardo was held to 10.
"There are no off nights here in the OCC. They're going to Lexington next and we're going to Senior. Two more tough matchups."
No doubt about it, as the Knights would usher out 2011 with a 48-43 loss against the Minutemen on Friday, Dec. 30 – despite 19 points from Arnold and 11 from Snyder – while the Arrows fell 67-58 against the Tygers to drop to 2-4 on the season and 1-3 against OCC opponents.
But before welcoming in the new year, the Knights had a message for all of the Ashland fans as they filed out of the Dungeon after seeing their team blow a 13-point fourth-quarter lead on Dec. 23.
Me-rry Christ-mas to each of you, and to each of you…goodnight.