South Range survives late Crestview barrage

Photo by: Nick Mays

Special to the Vindicator

Photo

Tom Oliver (33) drives past Mike Thorpe (22) and Isaac Schuster (44) of South Range during their game Wednesday night.

By Jon Moffett

jmoffett@vindy.com

BEAVER TOWNSHIP

The Crestview Rebels played an inspired four minutes of basketball to close out their game against South Range. Unfortunately, as head coach Herman Miller pointed out, the game is a tad bit longer than that.

Crestview had to heave up a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer and pray it went in to force overtime. And when it didn’t, the Raiders walked out of their home gym with another big win over an Inter-Tri County League opponent.

“You can’t play four minutes of good basketball in a 32-minute game,” Miller said. “I thought our last four minutes showed a lot of desire. But in the end, you can’t not show up and do things poorly for so long and then decide to make some plays and give yourself a shot.”

The shot was more like a toss-it-up-and-hope-for-a-foul prayer.

Adam Coppock, who had made four 3-pointers in the game, got the ball and tried to find a window for the tying basket. But the Raider defense offered little. Coppock was forced to chuck the ball up as time expired.

“There was a lot of effort late,” Miller said. “But considering what was on the line for us tonight, I think we certainly could have executed better earlier.”

And what exactly was on the line? Oh, just the opportunity to capture a third straight division crown outright. Now the Rebels (14-4, 10-3 ITCL Tier One) can only hope to earn a share of the crown.

South Range head coach Dave Purins said his team did a good job of pressuring Coppock and the Rebel shooters on the final shot.

“We had been playing a zone defense the whole fourth quarter, so we decided to match up in a pressure-man [defense], switching screens and just trying not let them get a good shot off.”

The Raiders (13-4, 10-3) led by double-digits for most of the game, including by 10 with three minutes to go. But Purins admitted the team took its foot off the gas pedal in an attempt to milk some clock.

The strategy almost backfired as the Rebels were able to steal the momentum right out of the gym. But South Range’s Andy Lacefield wasn’t about to let that happen — not when the celebration involved a few games of Call of Duty after the win.

“These last few games matter a lot,” he said. “We want to finish out the season strong and on a good note so we can streak into the playoffs.”

Lacefield had a team-best 15 points. Teammate Brandon Pluchinsky added 14 points, but Lacefield said the duo could have gone for more had it not been for the Purins’ orders to slow the pace down.

“We want to attack, we want to score and we want to get more points because that is what basketball is all about,” he said. “But we needed to slow the game down and know the situation we were in. We just needed to listen to what coach said and follow through.”

Miller said his team came out lackadaisical and struggled from the onset. At the opening tip, C.J. Collins knocked the ball toward the sideline, and it bounced out of bounds to give South Range the opening possession.

Coppock led the team with 13 points while Tom Oliver had 12 and Collins added 10. Miller said he was proud his team was able to turn things around late and said the message to his team is simple: When you play hard, you’ll be in the games.

“You gave yourself a chance, which is awesome,” he said.

Lacefield said his team, too, was a little lax when it came to the last few minutes.

“We didn’t fall apart, but we got a little lackadaisical and gave up a few turnovers,” he said. “But we really buckled down there at the end and made a big stop.”