JEROMESVILLE — Waynedale coach Dane Held knew his Golden Bears would be in for a battle Tuesday night.
Heading to Hillsdale with the Falcons coming off a statement win at Norwayne last week snapping the Bobcats’ 34-game home win streak in Wayne County Athletic League play would be a tough follow. And being one of just three teams in Ohio to take down the Falcons, Held knew they would want revenge to stay in the mix for a league title.
“We knew they were coming off a great win, and even their game Saturday against Triway where they lost by three, I watched it and they played really, really well,” he said. “Not having (Troy) Bennett hurt them, and Knox Lewis must’ve been sick, so that hurts them. But I’m still very proud of our kids and how they competed.”
As he should be after the Golden Bears handed Hillsdale its third WCAL loss in a come-from-behind 55-51 win for an unexpected sweep of the Falcons. The win was largely in part thanks to a momentum-shifting 10-2 run to close the third quarter turning an eight-point deficit — and seemingly Hillsdale’s chance to pull away — into a tie game heading into the fourth.
“I thought our guys executed really well, maybe better than we have all year,” Held said. “Teams in our league, everybody knows what each other is going to run. We all know our plays and the other team’s plays, but you still gotta execute them. I thought our boys did on a couple possessions in a row when they made the extra pass and found the open guy; just finding our guys to shoot rhythm shots.”
The third quarter comeback was highlighted by a Luke Lorentz steal and transition layup with 2.3 seconds on the clock. That momentum was carried into the fourth where the Golden Bears tied it up again (44-44) midway through the quarter and leaned on defense to secure the win.
“We’ve just been trying to preach to our group that as long as we play defense, we can give ourselves an opportunity,” Held said. “I think we gave up 21 points in the first half, we could hang our hat on that going at the halftime. The way we play this year, we shoot a lot of 3s, so we could score nine points on three possessions.
“On Saturday we thought we had a kind of a defensive breakdown. We had a game we were fortunate enough to win, but felt like there were a lot of corrections we had to make defensively. And only having Monday to work on that, it’s kind of tough to change some of that stuff on the fly. But we made it much more of a point of emphasis that we had to be committed to doing our jobs defensively and I thought the group bought in and did their jobs.”
Braedon Lorentz led the Golden Bears with 15 points — 5-of-10 from 3-point range — Ernie Schmucker and Evan Yoder had 11 points apiece, Luke Lorentz eight, Brayden Schlabach six, Trevyn Frazier four.
“We knew that a game in the 40s and 50s, the favor was more our style,” Held said. “If we were getting up to 60s and 70s, they’re probably winning that one most of the time. So we were trying to keep it more defensive and slow it down a little bit.”
Even focusing on defense, Waynedale still shot 34% from deep hitting 8-of-23 attempts. Conversely, the Falcons managed just two 3s from Lowen Ferguson, one in each half.
“Might be an all-time low,” Hillsdale coach Ben Ferguson said. “Just one of those days when you have no school and it seems like focus goes out the window — not to make excuses — but we’re dealing with high school boys.
“Missing Knox is a big deal, but reality is we were right there and with a little more attention to detail and focus, I think we could’ve won a ball game.”
With Knox Lewis out sick and Troy Bennett injured, the Falcons were missing key players yet again in a big game.
“A lack of focus, and we’re short staffed again … sure enough that ends up in a loss,” coach Ferguson said. “Chippewa beats Smithfield tonight, so that was really a golden opportunity for us to come out there with a win and we just fell short.
“After the game we let the boys know this is exactly what happens when the attention to detail and focus (aren’t there). We had 10 turnovers, which isn’t a high amount, but it wasn’t like they were forcing them. It was more so in the half-court, we ended up breaking the press but couldn’t get through screens and seemed to get lost on defense at times. They hit some big shots … I give them a lot of credit for making the big plays.”
It wasn’t for a lack of effort, though. Kael Lewis tried to will the Falcons to a win in the second half scoring 17 of his game-high 21 over the final two quarters, he also grabbed double-digit rebounds.
“He’s our workhorse, he does so much on the floor with his energy alone. He’s a real leader … turns out it just wasn’t enough for tonight,” coach Ferguson said.
Lowen Ferguson added 19 points, Hayden McFadden five, Jake Haven four, Deacon Boreman two as Hillsdale drops to 8-5 overall and 5-3 in WCAL play.
“We’re gonna wear this one for a while, but the season is not over,” coach Ferguson said. “We have a lot of basketball to play.”
zholden@gannett.com | 419-617-6018 | Twitter/X: @Zachary_Holden
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Waynedale’s comeback crushes WCAL title hopes for Hillsdale boys hoops
Reporting by Zachary Holden, Ashland Times-Gazette / Ashland Times Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
