HOLMES TOWNSHIP — This boys Division III sectional championship game had everything a title game is supposed to have, including lead changes, an overtime period, and a buzzer beater.
Unfortunately, No. 4 Wynford (13-10) came up on the short end of a heartbreaking 72-69 score against No. 5 Lake (17-7).
“We’re about an inch from winning that game in regulation,” Wynford coach Mike Smith said.
“I thought Grant (McGuire) had it. I really thought he had it. But I guess when things are going bad, those things happen. These kids battled, being shorthanded. And tonight was the perfect example of how hard they’ve been working the last few weeks.”
After a 78-47 loss to Seneca East last Friday night, Wynford played much better.
“Last week was a kind of an anomaly because that wasn’t us. They were playing for something last week. But (Lake) is a really good team, and we should have won. I can’t fault my kids effort, I thought they did everything we asked them to.
“We were right there to win this game. We were an eyelash away from doing that,” Smith said.
The two squads were evenly matched with the Flyers taking a 27-26 lead at halftime. In what was a bit of foreshadowing, Lake’s 6-foot-5 senior Caleb Tobias hit a three-pointer to put his team on top.
Fast forward to game’s end and James Rindfuss stole the ball and passed to Grant McGuire, who shot a layup that rolled off the rim as the buzzer sounded and the score tied at 63-63.
Then in the overtime Lake went up six at 69-63 courtesy of a Dylan Wiley steal and basket and two free throws by Tobias.
But Wynford answered when Wes Prenger converted 3-of-4 foul shots (after a foul and a technical assessed to Tobias for taunting). That made it 69-66 with 1:59 to play.
Rindfuss came up with another steal and converted the basket, then added a foul shot to tie the game at 69-69 with 55.7 seconds to play.
Junior guard Jay Blazevich became the unlikely hero for the Flyers as he drained a corner three with 1.6 seconds left, making it 72-69. Wynford couldn’t get the ball inbounded and the buzzer sounded.
“That kid made the shot, and I don’t know if he’s made five all year,” Smith said. “Maybe he has, but when we watched them, he was a kid we were going to let shoot. And he buried it. It was a great shot.”
Lakes advances to the district tournament against Genoa — a 34-30 winner over Oak Harbor — on Wednesday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m.
“We stayed the course throughout so many momentum changes in that game,” Lake coach Luke Hickey said. “Whether we were up four, we got down four at one point, we just stayed the course and we stuck to our stuff. We knew where we’re successful, and we stuck to it.”
Lake was led by point guard Preston Snyder. He had 16 points, four rebounds, two assists and four steals. Teammates Wiley and Travis Merrill added 15 each. Wiley and Tobias each had seven rebounds.
Prenger had 18 points for Wynford. Seniors Warren and McGuire had 15 points each, with Warren adding eight rebounds and McGuire seven.
“We were really good in the second half,” Smith said. “They were more aggressive, got to the basket a little bit, and when we did, they kicked it back out, and we hit some threes. We hit 10 and that’s what we want to do. Maybe we took some quick ones sometimes, but our game is trying to shoot threes.”
The Royals hit 10-of-26 from beyond the arc.
“We averted disaster on our part. We’re not much of a delay game team, but the tournament brings that out a little bit here and there,” Hickey said. “I just felt that this game is going to be won or lost on our end. Whether we’re going to win with a bucket or we’re going to overtime. Clearly at the end of regulation that did not go as planned.
“We knew they have incredible shooters. We wanted them to shoot it off the dribble. We wanted them to shoot fadeaways, and I thought we did that for the most part. We knew they would get hot at some point, but it was going to be a contested shot. It was going to be a shot that we’ll live with, and we’ll live with the result after that.”
Smith said his team has fought back all year.
“It’s been a very hard season on all of us. Myself, the coaches, the kids especially. But it’s a life lesson. Everything in life isn’t going to go your way. When you’re down you gotta keep fighting through stuff.
“You can’t give up. I don’t think we did. I thought the kids played as well as they could for the last four or five weeks. We just didn’t win enough games. If we had won tonight, I still thought we had a good shot at getting to the district finals,” he said.
Box score
Lake 13 14 18 18 9 — 72
Wynford 10 16 22 15 6 — 69
Lake (17-7): Shots 30-58; 3-pt. shots 7-19 (Preston Snyder 2, Dylan Wiley 2, Caleb Tobias, Carter Behlmer, Jay Blazevich); Free throws 5-9; Rebounds 28 (Dylan Wiley 7, Caleb Tobias 7); Turnovers 16. Scoring: Preston Snyder 7 0 16, Dylan Wiley 6 1 15, Caleb Tobias 3 2 9, Carter Behlmer 2 1 6, Travis Merrill 7 1 15, Jay Blazevich 2 0 5, Drew Tajblik 3 0 6.
Wynford (13-10): Shots 22-54; 3-pt. shots 10-26 (Wes Prenger 3, Drew Johnson 3, James Rindfuss 2, Grant McGuire, Ashton Warren); Free throws 15-21; Rebounds 22 (Ashton Warren 8); Turnovers 20. Scoring: Ashton Warren 4 6 15, James Rindfuss 3 1 9, Wes Prenger 5 5 18, Anthony Evans 0 1 1, Grant McGuire 6 2 15, Drew Johnson 3 0 9, K.J. Kotalik 1 0 2.