ONTARIO — Willard coach Joe Bedingfield doesn’t want his players to be robots on the court.
But when it comes down to late-game execution, he wants them to know exactly what to do at exactly the right time. In a 74-71 overtime victory over Ontario, the Flashes were near perfect in the extra period to pull off a momentum-building win just ahead of tournament time.
From the jump, the Flashes executed on offense with deliberate intent hitting on back-door cuts on several sets before settling into an early lead. It led to the Flashes knowing exactly what kind of cuts would work in crunch time as well as where the weak spots in Ontario’s defense would be at any given time. The 13-7 advantage in OT proved that.
“We were a little methodical tonight because Ontario’s on-ball pressure is so good,” Bedingfield said. “We wanted certain guys in certain locations, and I loved the spacing we had on the floor. We were able to hit on some backdoors and we handled their pressure well for the most part. This game is a game that momentum could go either way and our guys hit some big shots early on and again late in the game with composure. That is a good sign this time of the year.”
Playing a freshman, three sophomores and a senior for most of the game, the Flashes showed a ton of poise for one of the youngest teams in the area. Trailing 63-59 late in the fourth quarter, freshman JJ Bedingfield drilled a corner 3-pointer to cut the lead to just one point. After Ontario split a pair of free throws, the Flashes gave the ball to sophomore Jaxson Hall and let him go to work. He got to the rim and finished a tough layup just before the buzzer sounded to send the game into overtime. He proceeded to score six points in OT including two free throws to ice the game.
“No nerves,” Hall said of his mentality stepping to the free-throw line. “I block everything out and shoot it just like when we shoot 25 every practice. I have to be confident stepping to the line because if I am not, I could let the team down.”
And he didn’t. He finished with a team-high 21 points while JJ Bedingfield added 19 and sophomore Jaleb Weaver had 12 and senior Mason Dawson scored seven.
“We have been consistently playing a freshman, three sophomores and a senior,” Joe Bedingfield said. “Once January hits, they are no longer freshmen or sophomores. They have 21 games under them and they have learned through losses and wins. They make mistakes, but you will never hear them make excuses. They showed a lot of on-court leadership from multiple guys.”
Dawson’s contributions were felt much deeper than the score sheet — he was credited with the young team’s composure down the stretch.
“It’s a huge prop to Mason for being the only senior out there,” Hall said. “When things are going back, he always finds a way to bring us together. His leadership is so obvious because he is always communicating. Coach B is always communicating every free throw telling me something to relay to the guys and it just goes from there.”
The win was a huge response for the Flashes who saw their Sandusky Bay Conference title hopes dashed just four days prior in a 90-45 loss to Margaretta in a game that could have derailed the tail end of the season. Instead, the Flashes went out and beat a Division III team.
“We talked about that after the disappointment of the Margaretta game,” Joe Bedingfield said. “That is a great team and our jobs as coaches is to teach young kids how to handle adversity and how to respond. They came out ready to play tonight and this was a great sign for a young team. Everyone contributed.”
Trindon Flenoury led Ontario with 29 points while Cardae Brown added 25 while no other Warrior scored more than six. Ontario (14-7) lost its fifth straight game and sixth in the last seven.
“There is a lot of frustration, but I think we are coming closer to getting back to who we are as a team,” Ontario coach Jerry Moton said. “We took a step back against River Valley, but we took two steps forward today. It wasn’t the result we wanted, but the effort was there. I am starting to recognize my team again. We are getting back to us.”
The Warriors trailed by nine heading into the half after Remington Schroeder nailed a ¾-court heave at the halftime buzzer. It ignited the Warriors to pull within one by the end of the third and even take a lead with 40 seconds left in regulation. That and the intensified defensive effort.
“I told them to sell out,” Moton said. “We had to dig deep. We took the press off in the second quarter to try and switch things up, but when we put it back on, we did the things we are extremely good at.”
Willard (18-3) hosts Bellevue on Feb. 20 in the season finale. With two freshmen, four sophomores, one junior and one senior reaching the scorebook, the Flashes feel well ahead of schedule in their development.
“It has been so much fun,” Hall said. “Coming from a ball boy and watching all the older guys play to now getting my chance and winning big games. I am having so much fun playing with my friends and winning these kinds of games. I love this competition and I feel like we just got a lot better heading into the tournament. This was a tournament atmosphere.”
And both coaches loved the test right before tournament time, which begins next week.
“That is the type of win you want ahead of the tournament,” Bedingfield said. “We went and played with toughness, through adversity and against a very good Ontario team that played extremely hard and are athletic. It was such a great game for us ahead of the postseason. We both got better tonight.”
Moton agreed.
“This is a great game to have at the end of the year,” Moton said. “Willard is such a great team that runs an efficient offense. I felt like we controlled the second half and it was our game to lose. We just didn’t do some things at the end to finish it out.”
The Warriors will go back to work ahead of a home game with Highland before nearly two weeks off before they play in the district semifinal against the winner of Kenton and Shelby. Willard gave them a lot to work on until then.
“It was a great challenge for us because we need to get disciplined on defense in the half court,” Moton said. “Once we do, we are going to be a scary, scary team come tournament time. We have time to improve on that. We have Highland on Friday and then we don’t play again until March 3. Our point of emphasis until then will be hammering down our defense.”
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Willard, Ontario test each other ahead of postseason with overtime thriller
Reporting by Jake Furr, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
