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South Range clinches crown
new middletown
It was by no means easy, but the South Range boys basketball team battled to a road victory over Springfield 48-44 to win the Inter Tri-Country League Red Tier, stealing it from the team that claimed the title last year.
“Last year, we came within a basket and we were the ones missing the shot at the end,” South Range head coach John Cullen said. “This feels pretty good. It took us four years to get one.”
The Raiders (21-0, 8-0) came into the game in a weird juxtaposition, undefeated but a loss meant they would split the title with Springfield.
“We didn’t end it right last year,” South Range senior Dan Ritter said. “But we’ve worked so hard for this all my four years. We wanted it so bad and we finally got it.”
Mark Vennetti scored 15 points for South Range, all from 3-point land, while Ritter added 11, including three big free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.
Springfield’s Jake Ford led all scorers with 18 points but no other Tiger scored in double figures.
Things didn’t come easy for the Raiders at the beginning. Springfield’s zone defense was very effective as the Raiders couldn’t get open looks consistently from the perimeter. And down low, the Tigers were larger.
“They were playing their match-ups and spread it out more than they normally do,” Cullen said. “When you do that you’ve got to score by penetration and we didn’t penetrate.”
The Tigers (14-6, 6-2) were able to go down low. Neither team led by more than five in the first half and there were five lead changes. At halftime, South Range held a slim 24-21 lead.
“We looked at the last game and saw we missed a lot of shots inside so we wanted to attack the hoop,” Springfield head coach Eric Fender said. “On defense, we really wanted to come and contest their shots.”
The tide seemed to turn in the third quarter as South Range thoughts of a smaller rim being installed on their hoop at halftime may have been going through players’ heads.
The Raiders scored just three points for much of the third quarter as Springfield got their lead up to 32-27. But a 3-pointer by Vennetti and a layup by Jaxum Anderson tied things up entering the final quarter.
“We had a not-so-great third quarter against McDonald on Tuesday and we wanted to go out and have a better, more competitive third quarter,” Fender said.
Even though shots weren’t falling for South Range, the answer for their offensive woes came from the defensive end.
“Coach told us ‘Go rebound and play better defense,’” Ritter said. “That’s our mentality.”
Cullen said he wanted to pressure Springfield into taking ill-advised to spur his team’s comeback.
“We knew if we could make them take bad shots then it wouldn’t be hard to come back because we have scorers,” Cullen said.
The teams traded leads on five consecutive baskets early in the fourth quarter but Vennetti’s final 3-pointer put the Raiders ahead for good at 43-40.
Springfield had a chance down 46-44 with 17 seconds left, but a broken play at the basket allowed Ritter to hit his final two foul shots to earn the win. The first shot, the beginning of a one-and-one, seemed to sit on the front of the rim for hours until it dropped in, leaving Ritter to do nothing but shrug.
“It was a little short but I got the roll,” Ritter said. “I’ve been in that situation before so I was fine.”