Tipton outlasts Oak Hill in blazing sectional final

By PEDRO VELAZCO
Tribune sportswriter

March 04, 2008 10:34 am

— TIPTON — At 8:52 p.m. Monday night, Tipton boys basketball player Matt Hodges sprinted off the bench, across the floor and leapt into the arms of teammate Derek Elston.
Hodges’ left knee shouldn’t have allowed him to do that. Injured in the Northwestern game Feb. 5, Hodges missed three games and is going ahead with the final stretch of his season because he’s a senior, regardless of a torn ACL.
Did he feel pain when he sprinted?
“Nope. None at all. Just joy,” he said.
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He and his Blue Devil teammates were celebrating beating Oak Hill 68-64 in a red-hot championship game of the Class 2A Tipton Sectional.
Elston was the rock Hodges jumped on, and the steady foundation for the Blue Devils all night. He scored 19 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, including the final one of the game just a couple ticks before the buzzer.
“This is amazing,” Elston said. “It’s the best feeling in the world right now.”
Tipton (21-2) endured an intense game that see-sawed on waves of emotion from both crews. Oak Hill (18-4) started hot, hitting its first eight shots and building a 20-10 lead during the first quarter.
“They did [start hot] but our whole season has been about defense. We knew that they were going to cool down eventually,” Hodges said. He credited a list of Blue Devils who played big roles for Tipton. “Greg Dickey stepped up and hit big shots, Taylor Maxey played great defense. Derek, the player that he is, showed everybody the player that he is. It’s amazing. I’ve got a great team.”
Tipton had wrestled the momentum at halftime, pulling ahead 35-32 with a 3-pointer by freshman guard Dickey less than 30 seconds ahead of the halftime buzzer.
Tipton led nearly the entire third quarter but Oak Hill shot ahead with a 9-0 run in the last 1:40 to put the Devils on their heels, down 55-51 after three quarters. Then, in the final eight minutes, it was Tipton’s turn to make a move.
Kyle Coleman scored an inside hoop, Jake Hoffman and Dickey each hit 3-pointers to put Tipton ahead 59-55 in the first two minutes. Oak Hill bounced back and took its only lead of the quarter, 62-61 with 3:00 left but Coleman had another answer with a hard post-up bucket at 2:05. Elston’s post hoop a minute later put the Devils ahead 65-62 and in position to protect the lead.
Hodges did that with 17 seconds left and his squad clinging to a one-point lead. He hit both freebies to push the advantage to 67-64. Oak Hill had two more possessions but missed two 3-pointers and Elston took both rebounds.
“I mean, they shot the lights out early,” Tipton coach Travis Daugherty said. “We really didn’t defend them that poorly — we didn’t do a great job of challenging shots but they deserve a lot of credit for the way they played in the first quarter. But this is what our team’s done all year. We’ve been through a lot of adversity and it’s just a testament to these kids and how hard they’ve worked. I’m really proud of their effort all year, but especially [Monday] night.
“It’s just one example of many of fighting through a tough stretch, and having the grit to come back and do it.”
The Devils did it with defense everywhere and grit on the inside. In the second half, Tipton repeatedly went to Elston facing the basket, or in the low post, and to Coleman in the low post. Elston scored seven points after halftime and had 10 rebounds. Coleman scored a dozen of his 19 points after halftime.
“We worked hard this week to try to attack them inside,” Daugherty said. “We did a good job of executing that plan. Especially as the game went on, we continued to battle in there and get a lot done.”
Elston added that going inside had an added benefit — preventing Oak Hill from getting out on the break after corralling long defensive rebounds off missed jumpers.
Coleman and Elston shared game-high scoring honors, followed by Dickey who scored 15. Hoffman and Hodges each had five.
On the Oak Hill side, inside-outside forward Derrick Pond led with 16 points and hit 6 of 7 shots but was in foul trouble nearly the entire game. Bryant Blair added 14 and Eric Doyle scored a dozen off the bench.
“Oak Hill is so good and coach [Kevin] Renbarger deserves so much credit for the way they played all year and the way they played [Monday] night,” Daugherty said. “That’s a team that is going to win a lot of games for a lot of years I think.”
Renbarger was equally impressed with the Devils. He lamented that his squad may have given itself a false sense of security by coming out of the gate hot, but didn’t feel disheartened at the result.
“We didn’t pull it out here but by no means do I feel like we lost the game. This is a game that Tipton won,” Renbarger said. “Tipton’s a heck of a basketball team. I would expect them to go deep in the tournament.”

Saturday’s Regional pairings:
Class 2A at Tipton
10 a.m. — Tipton (21-2) vs. FW Luers (20-3)
Noon — Carroll (10-12) vs. Northfield (14-8)
8 p.m. — Finals
Class 3A at Blackford
10 a.m. — Delta (18-5) vs. Peru (12-11)
Noon — Lakeland (17-7) vs. Harding (19-3)
8 p.m. — Finals
Class 3A at Plymouth
(Times to be determined)
Kankakee Valley (13-10) vs. Northwestern (21-2)
Hammond Clark (15-7) vs. Plymouth (20-3)
Finals

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