Sports feeds
E-mail sports alerts
SNS sports mobile
Home
>
Sports
>
High Schools
>
Tecumseh
Prep boys basketball Bellefontaine 42, Tecumseh 41
Randy Hilt
Tecumseh's Gabe Winans-Berner (right) grabs the ball in front of Bellefontaine's Max Oyer during Friday's game. Contributed photo by Randy HIlt
Bellefontaine steals game from Tecumseh at the buzzer
Chieftians score nine points in final 34.7 seconds to shock Arrows.
Hot Topics
+grabs+the+ball+in+front+of+Bellefontaine's+Max+Oyer+during+Friday's+game.+Contributed+photo+by+Randy+HIlt&bigDeclCap=Tecumseh's+Gabe+Winans-Berner+(right)+grabs+the+ball+in+front+of+Bellefontaine's+Max+Oyer+during+Friday's+game.+Contributed+photo+by+Randy+HIlt&bigCred=&bigUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ohio-share.coxnewsweb.com%2fmultimedia%2fdynamic%2f01079%2fsns020412sptecumse_1079878c.jpg&superSizeImage=y)
By Michael Cooper,
Staff Writer
11:29 PM Friday, February 3, 2012
NEW CARLISLE — Every second on the basketball floor is precious. No lead is safe until the buzzer sounds.
The Tecumseh High School boys basketball team learned that lesson the hard way on Friday night.
Despite trailing by seven points with less than a minute to go, Bellefontaine clawed back into game, and when Josh Carey nailed a 3-pointer at the buzzer, the Chieftains pulled off an improbable comeback, beating the first-place Arrows 42-41 in a Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail Division game.
“It just comes down to finishing the game off,” said Tecumseh coach Roger Culbertson.
The loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for the Arrows (12-4, 6-2), who fell one game behind Shawnee (11-4, 7-1), an 85-74 winner at Tippecanoe on Friday, in the CBC Kenton Trail Division race. Chase Culbertson had 12 points for Tecumseh, while Trent Mead had 11 and Codi Frank added 10.
Bellefontaine improved to 9-7 and 5-3 in the Kenton Trail, keeping its slim division title hopes alive.
Tecumseh led 17-12 at halftime, then used a 11-2 run in the third quarter to grab a 28-14 advantage.
The Arrows led by 11 at 35-24 after a slick behind-the-back pass from Frank found a streaking Mead for a layup with four minutes remaining.
Bellefontaine pulled to within five points after Jordan McClure, who had a game-high 16 points, nailed back-to-back 3-pointers with 3:30 remaining.
The Arrows extended the lead back to seven after Frank hit two free throws, but another 3-pointer by McClure with 34.7 seconds pulled Bellefontaine to within four points at 40-36.
Chase Culbertson made one of two free throws to make it a five-point lead, but a three-point play by Matt Gump helped Bellefontaine pull to within two at 41-39.
On the ensuing inbounds play, Bellefontaine’s Aaron Dunn knocked the ball to the ground and both teams tussled for possession as the officials’ called a jump ball, giving the ball back to the Chieftains under its own basket with 6.3 seconds to go.
The Chieftains’ inbounded the ball to Gump on the left wing, who drove to the lane. The Tecumseh defenders helped to the middle of the floor, leaving Carey wide open on the right wing. The senior drained the 3-pointer as time expired, shocking the large Tecumseh crowd.
Carey scored nine points in the game, all on 3-pointers. He’d only made eight 3-pointers entering the game.
Bellefontaine coach Henry Stolly said it had been “a long time” since his team had made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to win a game.
“You just give yourself a chance to win at the end, that’s all you hope for,” Stolly said. “We made good on that last chance.”
For Tecumseh, turnovers and missed free throws played a factor in its struggles down the stretch.
“We just didn’t take care of the ball when we needed to,” Roger Culbertson said. “It wasn’t very smart basketball by us.”
The Arrows travel to Greenon before visiting Shawnee on Friday for a key CBC Kenton Trail Division game. They beat the Braves 51-34 on Jan. 6.
“We’ve got to regroup and get ready to play Shawnee next week,” Roger Culbertson said.
Share this article
Breaking news by e-mail
Start your day with top headlines in your inbox and get breaking news e-mail alerts at any time by subscribing to our Headlines e-mail newsletter.
See Sample | Privacy PolicyView All
Top Jobs
 |
 |
Latest Sports Blog Posts
About our ads
About our adsCopyright © 2012 Springfield News-Sun, Springfield, Ohio, USA.All rights reserved.
By using this site, you accept the terms of our
Visitors Agreement and
Privacy Policy. AdChoices
. You may wish to note our
other business policies.
User comments are not being accepted on this article.