Julius Spradling got inside a couple times for layups against Miamisburg big man Andrew Hoerner. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
Sidney entered tournament play as a No. 1 seed in Division II, but Miamisburg had bigger ideas and big man in the middle the Yellow Jackets couldn’t stop.
Vandalia, OH – The moment wasn’t too big for Sidney. It just didn’t materialize.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
The Yellow Jackets’ chance to seize momentum, even the score and give it hope came and went in a matter of two minutes. And when that happens in tournament basketball games, seasons end.
The Yellow Jackets had been playing from behind and struggling to keep pace with Miamisburg when Julius Spradling made two layups to cut the deficit to five in the third quarter.
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Maybe the top-seeded Yellow Jackets were about to take over the game.
The defense obliged and got more stops, and offensive opportunities presented themselves. But Jayce Daniel’s 3-point shot went halfway down and spun out. Then Spradling missed a contested layup in transition.
And the moment had gone poof.
Instead of the score being tied, Miamisburg answered with two quick baskets to push the lead back to nine. That was the beginning of a 23-9 finishing run that led to a 56-37 Miamisburg victory in a Division II district semifinal at Butler High School.
“Like a good team, they had a little spurt on us going into halftime,” Sidney coach John Willoughby said. “And the same thing happened in the third quarter.”
Miamisburg’s Alex Anderson stops Sidney’s Kaleb Lee on a night when the Yellow Jackets struggled to find open shots.
In the end, Willoughby knew 37 points would never be enough against fourth-seeded Miamisburg (11-13). The Yellow Jackets (17-6) didn’t shoot the ball well enough and didn’t get enough shots near the basket to keep the score close over the final 10 minutes.
“They’re good defensively, all five of them can guard, and then their subs can guard,” Willoughby said. “We were really loose with the ball today for some reason. We probably tried to overdo some things.”
The Vikings held down Sidney’s three-man scoring machine of A’zon Steele, Daniel and Spradling, who average 16, 15 and 14 points, respectively. Steele and Daniel scored nine points each and Spradling scored six.
“We put a lot of scoring pressure on them all year,” Willoughby said. “Those three had to score. If they didn’t, we had a tough time scoring.”
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Miamisburg coach Tim Fries called Sidney’s three guards dynamic and knew the game plan had to slow them down.
“They’re really good shooters, and they shoot the three, so our goal was to kind of get under their feet and just make that as difficult as possible,” he said.
Sidney, almost always the smaller team on the floor, tried on offense to combat Miamisburg’s size, especially that of 6-foot-9 center Andrew Hoerner.
Jayce Daniel sizes up a shot against Miamisburg’s 6-foot-9 Andrew Hoerner.
“We tried to get them in the pick and roll a little bit, tried to get some mismatches that way,” Willoughby said. “But they’re good defenders.”
On the other end of the floor, Hoerner was two handfuls for the Jackets. He scored 13 of his 20 points – right on his season average – in the first half as the Vikings built a 29-22 lead. Hoerner made a variety of tough shots mostly from around 10 feet.
“A lot of the big kids in high school don’t move that well, but he’s able to go in and out, does a good job posting up, gets great position,” Willoughby said. “So we tried to have extra help and zoned up in the back, and that kind of took us out of position.”
When that happens Hoerner is a skilled and willing passer to teammates cutting to the basket. He doesn’t have to score to impact the game.
“He’s really unselfish, and he gets really frustrated when he’s doubled and guys aren’t cutting to that space,” Fries said. “So he’s been working with our guys on that, and he definitely found guys tonight.”
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Scoring help for Hoerner came mostly from guard Chrys Ngoh. He found open driving lanes and room to pull up for short jumpers to double his average with 14 points.
“You’re working so hard to stop a couple of their players, and a couple other players that don’t score that much kind of hurt us,” Willoughby said.
For Hoerner, dealing with double teams has been a way of life since his sophomore year. His game has matured enough as a senior to draw college interest from Army, Cedarville, Ashland and Thomas More. He averages 20 points and 10 rebounds.
A’Zon Steele scored nine points in his final game for Sidney.
“I’m used to it,” he said. “My teammates do a great job of getting me the ball quickly. So I get position, and then if they come quick, you got to look for the dish. But just really moving quick, getting a quick spin, quick drop step, just get an angle and go up with it.”
Miamisburg’s back-to-back wins over Troy and Sidney was more proof of the Greater Western Ohio Conference’s dominance over Miami Valley League teams in the tournament. Six of the GWOC schools are Division I, but Miamisburg and Northmont (a 78-37 winner over Fairborn) were fortunate to land in Division II when the state expanded from four to seven divisions this year.
“That was kind of in the back of my mind when they made the decision to make us Division II that we would benefit by playing in the GWOC,” Fries said. “Even though our regular season record wasn’t great, it really felt like those games prepared us for this. Our last week of the regular season we were at Centerville, at Fairmont, at Kings. We took our lumps, but it had us ready for this tournament.”
For Sidney, next year will be different without the scoring and years of experience Steele, Daniel and Spradling brought to the team.
“I’m proud of them,” Willoughby said. “They were a good group to coach and coachable. They tried to execute what we’re doing game-plan wise. They’re part of a good stretch of four years for us.”
Julius Spradling is one of three senior guards to play his last game for Sidney.
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