Preston Zumwalt put up 16 points for the Red Devils, while hitting four three-point shots. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
In a game of steep ups and downs, Tippecanoe owned the last “up,” a 7-0 closing run to claim sole possession of the MVL title. Tipp held Butler scoreless for the final 2:45 of the game.
Tipp City, OH – Going into Friday’s matchup, Tippecanoe had already clinched a share of the MVL title. A casual fan might’ve said it didn’t mean all that much for the Red Devils to engineer a reverse comeback and take down Butler 51-47.
Alan Brads is a contributing columnist and writes sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.
They were already champs, and the tournament draw was over. What’s the big deal?
But to anyone who was there and saw it happen, that’s pure lunacy.
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Tipp Guard CJ Bailey didn’t think that way.
“We were so focused on winning this one,” Bailey said. “We don’t like Butler. We did not want to share an MVL title with them at all.”
That wouldn’t make for a very nice Valentine’s card, but it sure works inside a locker room.
And they needed every bit of motivation they could scrape together. It took 32 minutes for the Red Devils to find a way to win.
In a game of sharp ups and downs, whoever broke the 44-44 tie with three minutes left had a great chance to make the final winning run. Both teams had already compiled a 12-0 run. So when Butler’s Tavarcia Green drained a 3 with a hand in his face, it looked like the Aviators were on the verge of sharing the conference title.
Red Devil CJ Bailey and Butler’s Charles Neely battle for the ball.
But Tippecanoe, against all momentum, trailing in second-half scoring by 13, roared back to life. For the first time since the first quarter they were clearly in the driver’s seat, and most impressively, they didn’t give up another point. Good free throw shooting gave them a four-point lead with 44 seconds to play. It took Butler 27 seconds to even find a shot worth attempting. A pair of offensive rebounds gave the Aviators three shots, all contested, all misses. A steal with eight seconds left sealed the deal.
It was the Devils’ 7-0 run, headlined by tough, clean defense in the face of foul trouble, that won them a trophy … or at least kept Butler from getting one.
The Red Devils are conference champs for the second year running and have won three of the 6 MVL titles.
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Tipp dominated the first and fourth quarters, winning those periods by a combined 29-11, and allowing just three combined FGs. Tell that stat to Brock Moon pregame and he’d be on top of the world.
“In the first quarter we stagnated them a little bit and kept them from getting the ball inside and getting Rusk touches,” Moon said.
Tippecanoe’s Colin Turner takes the ball away from Butler’s Julius Rusk.
Add on that senior guard Preston Zumwalt hit four 3’s just in the first half, and that sounds like a cakewalk.
“My teammates were getting me open,” Zumwalt said.”CJ and the rest of the team did a good job getting the ball to the open man.”
But cakewalks seldom exist in rivalries, and never when the rivals are both this good.
Butler found an answer to Zumwalt in Junior sharpshooter Charles Neely, who retaliated with four 3’s in just the second quarter. Still, Tipp’s Colin Turner beat the buzzer on a 17-foot runner for a 33-23 halftime lead.
Tipp’s advantage came from having two numbers to call on offense. Zumwalt scored 14, and Bailey 13. Butler was Neely or bust. No other Aviator scored more than two points in the half.
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The prevailing question at halftime was if Butler had stopped the bleeding in time. The answer was a resounding yes, because in the third quarter, they found their second scorer.
Julius Rusk scored 13 in the third quarter, including a single-handed 9-0 run, amidst the team’s 14-0 run. With 3:30 left in the third, he hauled in an offensive rebound and went up strong to give the Aviators a 35-33 lead, their first since 2-0. Notably, the Devils shut the Rusk faucet back off and held him scoreless in the fourth quarter.
CJ Bailey hit free throws in the final minutes that made the difference in the outcome.
“Rusk went on a run where he asserted himself and got some offensive rebounds,” Moon said. “But in the fourth, the pressure picked up and we did a decent job again of keeping the ball from him and making other guys hit tough shots.”
After Rusk’s go-ahead bucket neither team led by more than five. It was always going to come down to which team made a run last, and who hit their free throws. A wise coach once said free throws don’t win all games, but they win all the close ones.
Tipp hit five in a row from the inside the last two minutes to go from trailing 47-46 to leading, and winning, 51-47.
Bailey led all scorers with 18 points, and Zumwalt and Turner followed for Tipp with 16 and 10 respectively.
Neely led Butler with 16, Rusk scored 15, and Tomarri Moore scored 10.
The roller coaster dropped and rose so sharply, Butler easily could’ve won a 31-minute game, or a 33-minute game. But 32 was Tipp’s Goldilocks number. Just right.
DEFENSE…DEFENSE…DEFENSE….
The fast pace starkly contrasted with the choppy edition of this game a month ago, as did the overall quality of play. These are two teams that both improved over the last month of the season and have a chance to win some hardware in the postseason, which may be easier in the new alignment… a discussion for a different day.
Butler opens with Xenia, a team that stunned the Aviators a couple of weeks ago, but Butler has the better athletes. They’ll be favored at least until the district final.
Second-seeded Tipp faces Stebbins first, and would likely see #4 Franklin in the second round, and the challenge is simple:
“We haven’t put four quarters together,” Moon said. “That’s the challenge for the kids. We might be going home pretty early if we can’t put four quarters together.”
But no matter if and when they do go home, they’ll go home conference champions.
…AND JUMP-BALL…JUMP-BALL…JUMP-BALL…
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