PLYMOUTH — Little things often make the difference between winning and losing. Such was the case here in the boys Division IV sectional semifinal Wednesday night.
Trailing most of the game, Buckeye Central (4-19) rallied to get it to 41-39 midway through the fourth quarter. But an 8-0 run propelled Plymouth to a 51-41 win.
“They ran it out to 10 or 12 and we’re down 10 going into the fourth. And we finally made some shots and got it down to two. We made some stops,” said Buckeye Central head coach Chris Moyer.
“That was the key in the whole game. When we needed stops there in the final three to four minutes, we couldn’t get them.”
Jarrett Burrer led the Big Red with 15 points and 7 rebounds. He scored on a putback, Canaan Slone added one of his own and Burrer hit another on a jump-stop pushing the lead to 49-41 with 1:07 to play.
“We let Burrer get loose for eight points in the fourth quarter. We gave up an offensive rebound on a missed free throw. Just little things that you can’t do when you’re playing in a tournament and a close game on the road,” Moyer said.
Slone added 10. Gavin Bishop netted 15 to go along with six rebounds, two assists and two steals.
The Big Red (10-13) play at Colonel Crawford at 7 p.m. Friday for a sectional championship.
Plymouth head coach Eric Picklesimer said his team controlled the boards, 22-19, with 10 offensive rebounds.
“We rebounded very well, especially on the offensive side. Big offensive rebounds came through for us in that fourth quarter,” he said.
“We didn’t shoot it real well from the floor late and our free throw shooting wasn’t real good (6-15). Burrer does a good job of attacking the glass.”
Hunter Caudill, a 5-7 sophomore guard, hit a pair of three-point shots to open the fourth quarter. The second one cut the Plymouth lead to 41-37 before Jeremiah Fishpaw scored on a nice pass from Jack Phillips to pull within a basket.
Caudill ended up with 12 points, eight of them coming in the final quarter. Phillips added 10 and a pair of steals. Fishpaw had 12 rebounds and four points.
Heath Jensen (eight points) and Devin Siefert (four points) played their final games for Buckeye Central.
“Heath and Devin, I feel for them. It’s their last high school basketball game and play with their friends. I gave them that message. Thank you. Thank you for being part of the program. Thank you for playing your butts off and sorry we couldn’t give you a win,” Moyer said.
“We do have a lot of young guys back. We get Alec (Phillips) back next year and we’ve got a lot of young guys. We’ve got a good future. The message is you have to put in the work in the summer.
“Everybody in our league put it in the weight room in the summer and put in the skill work. We have to do that. We have to make a big jump. We didn’t do the work we needed to over the past summer and it showed at times this year even with a young group. The difference is the physicality of everybody in the league and the skill level. You can control that over the summer.”
Plymouth faces a tall order Friday night against the 16-6 Eagles, one of four teams that tied for the Northern 10 Athletic Conference title.
“Dave Sheldon and those guys — I don’t think he expected the great season that he had. He does a great job developing those guys. They play great defense. They’re strong. They’re physical and bigger than us,” Picklesimer said.
“So, we got about 24 hours to get ready and we’ll go to North Robinson and see what happens.”
Box score
Plymouth 51, Buckeye Central 41
Buckeye Central 13 11 7 10 — 41
Plymouth 11 16 14 10 — 51
Buckeye Central (4-19): Shots 14-38; 3-pt. shots 7-16 (Hunter Caudill 2, Devin Siefert 2, Jack Phillips 2, Cade Daniel); Free throws 6-8; Rebounds 19 (Jeremiah Fishpaw 12); Turnovers 9. Scoring: Hunter Caudill 4 2 12, Heath Jensen 1 2 4, Devin Siefert 3 0 8, Cade Daniel 1 0 3, Jeremiah Fishpaw 1 2 4, Jack Phillips 4 0 10.
Plymouth (10-13): Shots 21-40; 3-pt. shots 3-7 (Gavin Bishop 3); Free throws 6-15; Rebounds 22 (Jarrett Burrer 7); Turnovers 5. Scoring: Garrett Bishop 1 0 2, Gavin Bishop 5 2 15, Jarrett Burrer 7 1 15, Canaan Slone 5 0 10, Layne Bushey 1 1 3, Alexei Grose 2 2 6.