RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
The Heritage Patriots will play in the championship game of the boys’ ACAC tournament for the second straight year.
The Patriots defeated the two-time defending tourney champs, the Adams Central Flying Jets, 53-45, to earn their ticket to Saturday’s final against Woodlan.
Friday’s semifinal game at Southern Wells was nothing like the matchup between the same two teams in the 2024 championship contest. In that game, the Jets jumped out to a 17-point first-half lead on their way to an easy 74-43 win.
Friday it was the Patriots who started fast, forging a 13-4 lead after one quarter, with senior Braden Walter leading the way with six points, including a three-pointer from the right wing at the buzzer. The Patriots’ active man-to-man defense played a key role too, limiting the Jets to abysmal 1-for-14 shooting. The Jets’ only points came from Braylend Reber’s two free throws early in the quarter and Trace Maller’s fadeaway baseline jumper at the 1:34 mark.
Maller helped the Jets get back on track in the second quarter, scoring eight points on a pair of free throws and two straight three-pointers. But Heritage point guard Taurean Brown scored seven and Walter added another triple to maintain the Patriots’ nine-point lead as each team scored 12 in the period to make it 25-16.
Heritage’s Walter and AC’s Reber exchanged baskets in the first minute of the third quarter, and then the Patriots went on a 10-0 run, capped by Lybarger’s three-pointer with 2:58 left, to give Heritage a 37-18 lead that looked insurmountable.
The Jets had other ideas.
They held Heritage to a single Lybarger free throw the rest of the period while reeling off eight points on Cade Van De Weg’s fast break layup, Reber’s put back, and Maller’s jumper and layup. The 19-point lead had shrunk to 12 at 38-26, and the Jets seemed to have momentum heading into the final quarter.
But Heritage regained some control early in the period behind Lybarger’s layup and third three-pointer to go up 45-30 at the 5:22 mark. Once again, the Jets refused to fold, going on an 8-0 run that closed the gap to 45-38. Maller started it by hitting three free throws after getting fouled on a three-point attempt, and Lawson Deathe followed with a three-pointer. Reber closed the rally with a fast break layup.
Lybarger had seen enough. The senior, who leads his team in scoring, went hard to the hoop on the Patriots’ next possession, hitting a layup and drawing a foul from AC’s Drew Johnson. He hit the free throw to put Heritage back up by 10 at 48-38.
“That was huge,” said Heritage coach Kyle Sovine of Lybarger’s clutch play. “You know, we’re looking for those seniors, those leaders, to step up and make a play. We can sit back here and pass the ball back and forth, but that pressure leads to turnovers and then easy buckets, so it was good to see Landon take that leader role and go in there and finish the contact and get that three-point play.”
And yet it still wasn’t over. Reber scored on the right block, Maller hit a drive, and Reber put back Deathe’s missed free throw to make it 50-44, and when Maller sank one of two free throws with 45 seconds to go, the Jets were within five for the first time since early in the first quarter.
The Patriots, who made only six free throws in 15 second-half attempts, missed five in a row during the next 22 seconds, but Adams Central couldn’t capitalize, and the Patriots finally hit three free throws in a row (one by Davian Bates, two by Lantae Cassel) to seal the win.
“It was good to see us come out on top,” Sovine said. But he wasn’t happy with his team’s inability to put the Jets away late in the game. “We’ve got to handle that pressure,” he said. “Once again, it’s been a struggle all year; the game is close late, and we just kind of melt apart, so we’ve got to clean that up.”
The Patriots made 13-of-23 twos (57%), 6-of-14 threes (43%), and 9-of-20 free throws (45%). Adams Central went 13-of-36 on twos (36%), 3-of-13 on threes (23%), and 10-of-18 from the free throw line (56%).
Heritage scoring: Lybarger 15, Walter 13, Brown 11, Cassel 7, Eli Tigulis 4, Bates 3.
Adams Central scoring: Reber 20, Maller 20, Deathe 3, Van De Weg 2.
Heritage will take on the Woodlan in the final at 8:00 P.M. Saturday at South Adams. The Warriors won the other semifinal Friday over Jay County, 60-39. The girls’ title game will start at 6:00 P.M., pitting Southern Wells against Bluffton.
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