12-15-16
BY JACK BULLOCK
WAYNE CITY – Friday night's contest between Red Hill and the host Indians at the 64th annual Wayne City Holiday Tournament was a story that really wasn't worth writing home about.

But on this night, with the winner advancing to the title game on Saturday night, the final chapter of the saga was all that really mattered to Wayne City.

After these two teams slugged it out for nearly four full quarters, head coach Jeff Morris saw his club take advantage of some key Red Hill mistakes in the fourth quarter and overtime in a error plagued match up.

Trailing the Salukis 37-30 with just 2:17 left in the fourth, Wayne City rallied to force overtime and then finished off the visitors in the extra session.

The Indians outscored Red Hill 18-4 in the final 6:17 of playing time for an exciting 48-41 overtime triumph.

Coach Morris' club, who also struggled for most of the game offensively, put things all together when the outcome was on the line to improve to 3-0 in Pool B, 8-1 overall, and will now face long time rival Webber Township Saturday night at 7:30 pm for the championship.

After missing eight first half free throw attempts and committing 15-turnovers in the contest, the Tribe was in trouble late in the fray.

Offensively Wayne City never got in sync until the final minutes in regulation.

Red Hill offensively never got in sync at all.

Coach Bryan Havill's club committed 25-turnovers and, combined with 15 miscues by the hosts, it made for some very tough to watch moments.

However when Wayne City needed to make the plays, they got the job done to advance to the tournament championship.

“I thought defensively our zone bothered them in the second half and I thought that the kids really took advantage of their mistakes late,” said Coach Morris. “We made the shots we needed to.”

Six-foot-one forward Travis Dickey came up some key points and plays in the game, especially in the four quarter and overtime.

The sophomore led the Indians with 14-points, including eight of the teams' points in the late 12-point swing that turned defeat into victory.

He cashed in five consecutive free throws, three with :20.5 left in the fourth after being fouled attempting a shot outside of the arc, and nailed a 3-pointer in the first moments of overtime to give the Indians their first lead since the opening minutes of the game.

One of the other Indians to step up on this night was 6-foot-1 senior guard Jaxon King, who added 12-points in the win.

He helped lead the rally from the defensive end as well as he picked up a couple of key steals in the fourth quarter.

While pressing the Salukis after Dickey nailed the free throw trifecta, King reached high for an errant pass and, while falling down, found junior teammate Nate Barbee who was fouled on a fast break attempt.

His two made charities, his only points of the game, evened the score at 38-38 and sent the game into overtime.

Red Hill was led in scoring by 5-foot-11 junior Drew Moore, who nailed four 3-pointers, hit 7-of-8 free throws and finished with 21-points.

But he didn't get much help as the next player on the scoring list was 6-foot-3 senior Andy Wells with seven.

Five-foot-nine junior guard Conner McKinney hit a pair of 3-point shots and finished with six-points.

His 3-pointer matched Dickey's trey in the overtime, which tied the game at 41-all with 3:05 left.

That was the last positive thing that Red Hill did the remainder of the game offensively.

The Salukis next six possessions resulted in three more turnovers and three missed shots.

Wayne City closed out the game with King, Dickey and junior point guard Jayzale O'Neal hitting 7-of-8 free throws.

Coach Havill saw his team squander chances in the first half to really take control of the match up as they continued to turn the ball over.

Moore scored five of his points in the first quarter on a nice cut to the basket and hitting his first of four long range shots.

But after committing four turnovers in the first eight minutes, Red Hill led just 8-5 at the end of one.

King scored twice in the second quarter to keep the Indians within range and Dickey added 2-of-3 free throws while being fouled shooting a trey.

Moore converted a conventional three-point play in the second quarter and the Salukis led 20-13 at intermission.

But six more turnovers in the second quarter kept Red Hill from expanding the advantage.

Combined with Wayne City hitting just 5-of-13 free throws, the offensively brutal first half came to a close with Red Hill up seven.

Much of the offensive hardships experienced by the two teams can be directly attributed to the defensive efforts from both sides.

Red Hill kept the Indians from getting dribble drives to the basket while Wayne City forced the Salukis into more turnovers by extending their zone.

Two free throws to open the third quarter by Moore gave Red Hill its largest advantage of the night at 22-13.

Red Hill matched that nine-point spread late in the third quarter when Moore answered a Dickey 3-pointer with one of his own and a free throw make by Red Hill senior guard Chase Murray pushed the lead to 28-19.

Wayne City's Dalton Smith answered with a 3-pointer from the left corner to cut the advantage to just eight heading to the fourth quarter.

Red Hill failed to deliver a knock out blow in the early part of the fourth as they missed on a couple of free throw attempts and then couldn't get the defensive stops they needed late.

“We were just out to lunch tonight. We just stopped attacking when we needed to in the fourth quarter,” said Coach Havill. “We just played poorly tonight and we really didn't really deserve to win.”

Not unlike the Wednesday night overtime battle in this tournament between Gallatin County and Webber Township, both Wayne City and Red Hill each hit the same number of field goals and had the same number of missed field goal attempts.

The Indians and Salukis both ended up 11-of-31 from the floor with Wayne City hitting just 3-of-11 from the 3-point line while Red Hill was just 6-of-17.

Red Hill held a 23-19 rebounding edge.

The game was won by the hosts due to the turnover issues by Red Hill and the Indians getting things going from the foul line.

After the 5-of-13 first half, Coach Morris saw his club knock down 18-of-21 in the final two quarters and overtime.

“It's a win and we will take it. We missed a ton of free throws early but we made the ones late that counted,” said Coach Morris. “I told the kids, we have played bad but we made up a couple of points on them in the third quarter and I told them lets keep working hard.”

The Indians are in search of their 16th championship in the 64-years of the event as they will play in their 26th title game on Saturday night.

The opponent, Webber Township, will be looking for its eighth title and first since 2005.

Red Hill will play Gallatin County in the third place game at 6 pm.

“We were terrible tonight, the worst we have played all year. We had three days to get ready for this and we were just bad tonight,” said a disappointed Coach Havill. “This was the worst game I have probably been a part of. I don't know how to explain it but we have to turn around and get ready to play here tomorrow.”

Junior Aleon Rinehart led North Clay with 20-points while sophomore Tyson Jones added 10-points in the win.

The Cardinals will now face Crab Orchard in the fifth place game on Saturday.

Cisne (0-7) rallied but fell short and will play Grayville in the seventh place game.

Six-foot-five senior Blake Atwood led the Running Lions with 22-points.