By Mike McGraw
Executive Director
COLUMBUS – Call me an outdated purist, but if they ever put a shot clock in the high school game, it will be a tragedy. There is so much more to basketball than simply the ability to jump and shoot, and Class 4A No. 12 East Central proved that Feb. 26 in a shocking 33-30 upset of 4A No. 3 Bloomington South in the Sectional 14 opener at Columbus North.
East Central coach David Disbro convinced his charges in the last week that slowing the tempo was the only way to compete with the talented Panthers. His players bought into the concept and executed it to perfection.
There is an old saying that says the secret to playing chicken is knowing when to flinch. Take my advice – don’t play chicken with East Central.
There was never any secret as to the strategy in this one. East Central (14-7) took nearly a minute of the clock on its first possession, then settled into a sticky 2-3 zone on the defensive end. It was designed to take away Bloomington South’s obvious superiority in the post.
The strategy worked in the opening period as each team registered only six possessions in the entire quarter. At the end of the stanza, Bloomington South held a 6-5 lead. The Panthers (19-2) had gotten off only one shot in the paint, however, and East Central had survived early jitters that could have been fatal if the game had been played at a quicker pace.
The Trojans’ stat line in the first quarter read six possessions, two turnovers, 2 for 4 from the field, and two shots blocked. Yet they trailed by only a single point, and the stage was set.
It appeared through most of the second quarter that Bloomington South’s wily veteran mentor, J.R. Holmes, had the proper response. The Panthers’ full-court, man-to-man pressure began to creep the tempo up to the level where South likes to play, and the number of possessions in the quarter doubled from the first with both teams controlling the ball 12 times.
That certainly is not a track meet, but it was more to Bloomington South’s liking than the opening period had been.
Twice in the quarter, the Panthers extended their lead to five points. The first time came by scoring the first four points of the stanza to take a 10-5 lead, and the second was on a 5-0 run to make it 15-10 after East Central had rallied to tie the game midway through the quarter.
At intermission, the Panthers led just 15-12. But one got the feeling that they had righted the ship, and the early part of the third period did nothing to change that notion.
After East Central hit the first bucket of the half, Bloomington South went on a 7-0 run to stretch the lead to 22-14 with 5:25 remaining in the quarter. The Panthers actually had an opportunity to widen the margin to double digits, but an open 3-pointer from the wing failed to connect.
It was then that East Central displayed its character by doing the hardest thing in sports: staying the course when things are going badly. The Trojans refused to abandon their slow-down, spread-the-court tactics. If anything, they became more selective in their shot attempts.
Each squad had only five more chances to score in the quarter, and East Central cashed in on four of them. Meanwhile, Bloomington South went cold from the field and failed to score again.
Heading into the fourth, the score was suddenly tied at 22, and the legitimate thoughts of upset were dancing in the Trojans’ minds.
Three minutes later, though, nobody in the building was thinking upset. In fact, nobody was even thinking about the outcome of the game as there were far more serious considerations.
With East Central leading 25-22 with possession of the ball and five minutes to play, senior guard Kyle Pettit collapsed to the floor. It quickly became apparent that the situation was, at the least, momentarily serious. He remained on the court surrounded by medical staff for nearly 10 minutes.
Pettit was eventually helped to his feet and walked groggily to the Trojan bench, where personnel continued to attend to him. It was later learned that the episode was connected to some form of cardiac condition that had been known and monitored but simply manifested different symptoms on this occasion.
At the time of this writing, the young man is reported to be in no serious medical danger.
When play resumed, it appeared the stoppage had benefited the Panthers. Bloomington South’s defensive pressure was more intense and finally succeeded in forcing a couple of East Central miscues.
At the four-minute mark, Bloomington South finally broke what had become over a nine-minute scoreless streak. It cut the lead to 25-24 and again left people wondering if East Central could maintain its composure enough down the stretch to continue milking the clock.
Once again, East Central answered the call by stretching the lead back to three, 27-24. Then, the medical condition of Pettit again affected play. With 2:25 to play go, there was another stoppage of nearly 10 minutes while the young man was loaded onto a stretcher and taken to the hospital.
This time, the delay did not help Bloomington South as East Central returned to the floor with its composure fully intact. On their next possession, the Trojans worked nearly 40 seconds off the clock, then scored on a Seth Daugherty drive down the lane.
The score was 30-25, and the Panthers were in serious trouble.
As great teams do, Bloomington South did not go down without a fight. After missing on their next possession, the Panthers created a turnover and East Central fouled to prevent the open layup. Bloomington South made both free throws, cutting the margin to 30-27.
The Panthers’ pressure on the ensuing inbounds nearly caused a 10-second violation by East Central, and the Trojans called timeout after what those on press row thought was 9.9 seconds.
It would the favorite’s last gasp.
East Central was fouled and hit one of two free throws to push the lead to four with just over 30 seconds to play. Bloomington South then had two opportunities from beyond the arc but neither connected, and the second was probably an ill-advised effort.
Two more East Central charity tosses sealed the decision, and the Trojans executed their game plan to perfection.
Each team had only 39 possessions in the game. As the contest wore on, the pressure of each opportunity tightened the Bloomington South shooting strokes. (The Panthers, who were led on the evening by the nine points of Jordan Hulls, unofficially connected on only 5 of 19 second-half shots.) They also managed just 6 of 12 from the stripe.
East Central, meanwhile, got a mammoth 16-point performance from Daugherty. The Trojans will next face Columbus North (9-11) in Friday night’s semifinals, with the winner challenging either No. 19 Columbus East (15-4) or Bloomington North (11-9) for the championship Saturday night.
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