RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
Heritage’s Braden Walter made only one field goal Friday night against Bluffton in the semifinals of the ACAC tournament, but it was a huge one.
After his teammates had missed two shots with time running out and the score tied, Walter grabbed an offensive rebound and tossed in a five-foot jumper at the buzzer to lift the Patriots to a thrilling 37-35 win over the Tigers at Heritage.
With 1:28 left, Bluffton (6-6) had tied the game at 35-35 on a strong post-up move and bucket by Tucker Jenkins. Heritage (5-6) then held the ball for the last shot, working the clock down to 14.9 seconds before calling a time out.
When play resumed, they tried to get the ball inside but couldn’t, so with five seconds left, Landon Lybarger launched a three-pointer from two steps beyond the top of the key. It didn’t find the mark, but D’vontaye Washington corralled the miss and tipped it toward the basket. His attempt hit the front of the rim and caromed right into the hands of Walter, who barely beat the buzzer with his quick putback as the Heritage crowd went wild.
It was a game of drastic momentum shifts. After the teams ended the first quarter tied at 10-10, Heritage dominated the second quarter, 14-5, to take a 24-15 halftime lead. Washington sparked the Heritage rally by coming off the bench to score 10 points in the period on perfect five of five shooting.
Bluffton coach Craig Teagle instructed his players to pack in their defense to try to contain the inside game of Washington and the other Patriot big men in the second half. He figured they would take their chances on the Patriots’ outside shooting. The strategy worked to perfection in the third quarter, as the Patriots missed all nine of their shots, including six from long range. Meanwhile, Jenkins got hot for the Tigers, hitting four of his five shots, including a three-pointer, to score nine of the Tigers’ 13 points in the period. The 13-0 run gave Bluffton a 28-24 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Cameron Williams made it a 15-0 run by scoring the first two points in the final period on two free throws after a technical foul on the Patriots’ Kobe Meyer. The Tigers’ lead was six at 30-24.
Now it was Heritage’s turn to grab the momentum.
The Patriots’ Taurean Brown hit a free throw after being intentionally fouled on a breakaway layup, and Washington followed just seconds later with a bucket on the right block. A 15-foot jumper from Brown and two free throws by Washington gave the Patriots the lead again at 31-30. Lybarger completed the 9-0 run with a floater at the 3:07 mark to make it 33-30.
A three by Jenkins tied it before Washington hit his third and fourth free throws in a row to give Heritage a 35-33 lead. That set up Jenkins’ game-tying basket and the dramatic final sequence for the Patriots.
Walter put himself in position to make the game-winner. “I saw Landon (Lybarger) shoot it at the top, and I thought that was going in,” he said. “Then D’vontaye got it. He shot it, and I knew I had to run in just in case it wasn’t going to go in. I caught it, threw it back up, and it went in.”
First-year Heritage coach Kyle Sovine was pleased with his team’s resilience after that 15-0 Bluffton run. “That’s something we preach at practice,” he said. “We talk big about adversity. What are you going to do when something goes bad? You gonna pout and put your head down? Or are you gonna fight for it? They’ve really been growing as a team lately.”
It was second come-from-behind win in a row for the Patriots. Tuesday they overcame a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit against Woodlan to win their first-round tournament game.
Washington led the Patriots in scoring with 16. Brown scored six, Noah Redmon five, and Lybarger four. Walter and Lantae Cassel each added three.
Jenkins led Bluffton with 16 points, 14 of them in the second half. Caleb Green had eight, Williams seven. Elijah Garrett and Declan Grieser scored two each.
Heritage is slated to take on Adams Central at South Adams in the championship game Saturday at 7:30 P.M., weather permitting.