Mincher’s 30, Ford’s foul shots lift Springfield

By CHARLES GROVE

cgrove@vindy.com

BEAVER TOWNSHIP

The Springfield Tigers celebrated their fifth consecutive Inter-Tri County League division title at the expense of their South Range rivals with a 51-50 road victory.

Graham Mincher led the Tigers with 30 points, putting himself atop the career scoring list in school history as he hit a layup in the first quarter. The Springfield crowd gave Mincher a standing ovation and Mincher went up into the crowd to give his family the game ball.

“It’s just crazy,” Mincher said. “There were so many family members for me and you could just feel the crowd and they were ready for me to do it. I was trying really hard to get [the record] since right before I missed like three or four really close shots so I was like, ‘Ah, man, I’ve got to get it.’”

Springfield was able to briefly extend its lead to six with just over five minutes to play, but a couple of big 3-pointers by Rob Matos made it a one-possession game. And a layup by Brandon Youngs with 1:30 left gave South Range a 50-49 lead as the Raiders hoped to snag a share of the division crown.

Things looked to be swaying even more toward South Range after Youngs picked Mincher’s pocket the next possession. The steal and subsequent foul on Springfield led to South Range shooting two foul shots to extend the lead. But both clanked off the back of the rim giving the Tigers one last possession after a timeout.

“I was pretty mad at myself just because with me having the most experience on the team you don’t want to screw it up at the end like that,” Mincher said. “I was just hoping to get a second chance and I was just hoping that didn’t cost us the game.”

Springfield head coach Eric Fender drew up a play designed to get Mincher free off a staggered double screen, but South Range took that option away, forcing guard Jake Ford to drive to the basket. Ford was fouled on the drive and calmly hit two free throws to put Springfield up one with under 30 seconds to play.

This time it was South Range head coach John Cullen’s turn to draw up a play. Cullen ran a play the Raiders had found success with earlier in the game, but time caught up to them and a last-second heave by Preston Stitt rattled off the rim and sent the Springfield bench and a rowdy student section out onto the court in celebration.

Anthony Ritter led the Raiders with 15 points, the only South Range player to score in double figures. Cullen said the Raiders did well to put themselves in a position to win, but said his team still hasn’t learned how to win close games in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t think there’s much of a difference between the two teams,” Cullen said. “We put ourselves in a position to win because we didn’t just settle for outside 3s tonight but we just have to do a better job of doing the little things to put us over the hump. We haven’t gotten over the discipline hump and we’re just learning how to win at the end of games. We’re still a work in progress.”

Fender said he told his kids the foul line would be important, and he couldn’t have been more right.

“As we told our kids all game, free throws are crucial,” Fender said.