Evan Myers scored 15 points along with teammate Rhylan Platfoot in their District Final win over Fort Recovery. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
Anna shot its way to the lead in the first quarter, kept the lead when Fort Recovery made runs and advanced to the Division VI region semifinals to face Tri-Village.
Troy, OH – At midseason – really any point in the season – Anna and Fort Recovery didn’t have the look of two teams destined to meet for a Division VI boys district title. But here they were at Troy High School on Saturday morning, full of confidence despite a combined ledger of 22-26.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Anna arrived at 14-10 with losing streaks of four and three games on its resume. Fort Recovery walked into the gym expecting to win despite an 8-16 record and the baggage of a nine-game losing streak in the middle of the season.
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None of those downs broke anyone’s resolve.
“It was definitely an attainable goal that we had put up in our locker room,” Anna coach Nate Barhorst said. “With a senior-led team, I thought they could get there.”
Fort Recovery coach Bob Leverette’s team was younger but found a way to not accept the notion they were at least a year away from playing in a district final.
“We kept telling them just to keep believing, that things are going to happen,” Leverette said. “This was one of our goals when we started the season. We did not do as well as we wanted to do in the [MAC], but this goal was still there for us, and they bought into that.”
Anna’s Rhylan Platfoot puts in a 3-pointer as part of his 15 points.
Anna was supposed to win. And because of the senior leadership of Jacob Feroze, Alex Shappie. Evan Myers and Kyle Edelman – and a lot of precocious play by sophomore Rhylan Platfoot – the Rockets made two third-quarter runs that were the difference in their 67-59 victory.
Now the Rockets (15-10) face an opponent they’re not supposed to beat – Tri-Village. The Patriots (23-2) advanced with a 62-57 victory over Cincinnati Country Day (14-11) in the second district final at Troy. The Rockets and Patriots meet in a regional semifinal at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Butler High School.
“We talked about how from here on out that everything’s the whip cream on top,” Barhorst said. “You have nothing to lose from here on out, you know you’re playing with house money. Now go out and do it. Nobody’s expecting you to get any further.”
To survive Fort Recovery and a 25-point outburst by senior Briggs Overman, the Rockets wanted to grow the lead in the third quarter after a 32-27 halftime lead.
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The first spark came from Platfoot. He was only in the game because Feroze picked up his third foul 57 seconds into the half and Anna up 34-29.
Platfoot wasn’t the unlikeliest of heroes, but his 15 points weren’t on the scouting report either. Within less than two minutes of subbing for Feroze, Platfoot nothing-but-netted two 3-pointers to push the lead to 40-30.
Anna’s Jacob Feroze puts the heat on the Indians’ Braylon Dilworth.
Platfoot broke his left wrist in late January and missed seven games. Just three days ago he was still wearing a brace.
“I just knew after I hurt my wrist I had to get better and work harder at practice and be a good attribute to our team,” Platfoot said.
Barhorst knows his sophomore will be a scorer in the future, but he didn’t expect what Platfoot did in a district final even though he played more than usual because of foul trouble.
“It was a blessing in disguise because it gave him an opportunity to really help out with the team offense,” Barhorst said. “We know that he can give us offense, and that really helped extend that lead in the third quarter.”
However, Overman and Fort Recovery didn’t shrink from adversity. Sophomore Brody Barga drove the lane for a tough basket, Overman made a 3-pointer and senior Gavin Evers scored off an offensive rebound to cut the deficit to 40-37.
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But Anna didn’t flinch. Feroze was back on the floor, Platfoot stayed in, and the Rockets remained confident.
“Just knowing that the next basket was coming, we had to get the next stop, not looking too forward in the game,” Feroze said. “And their record doesn’t show how good they are. That’s a really good team over there.”
Anna’s Brady Wenning blocks the shot of Fort Recovery’s Brody Barga.
But the Indians’ rally turned out to be their last gasp. Starting at 2:59 of the third, Feroze made two free throws, Edelman scored inside, Myers drove the lane for two buckets and Platfoot followed in a missed shot with 16 seconds left. The Rockets led 50-37, then made 14 of 18 free throws in the fourth quarter. The closest the Indians got was the final score.
“Our goal at halftime was to come out and let’s play a perfect second half,” Leverette said. “And that’s what it was going to take, honestly.”
Overman, his jersey and hair soaked in sweat after the game, hated losing. But he knew what his team had proven.
“We fought,” he said. “We made a lot of dumb decisions, but we had to keep fighting and trying to have a chance at winning this game at the end. And I thought we did.”
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The 6-foot-1 Overman willed his team to a nearly perfect first half with 13 points. Mostly he attacked the rim. One drive ended with a high bank off the glass over an outstretched arm, and another one down the middle ended with a dunk.
“Big plays just raise energy in the gym, get the crowd excited, get the players excited,” Overman said. “It just makes you want to keep going.”
Anna’s Alex Shappie attempts to block the vision of the basket from the Indians’ Breaker Jutte.
Overman’s dunk cut Anna’s lead to 26-25 and made the Indians’ purple-clad crowd believe they could actually win. And if the players didn’t already believe they belonged in a district final, they did at that moment.
“We worked,” Overman said. “We had a long losing streak, but we just had to fight through it. And we knew we could get here. We knew we had the talent.”
Barhorst reminded his team at halftime that defense would be the difference in the second half. He stressed the fundamentals of staying down and stopping the Indians from getting to the basket. Make them shoot over the top.
“They’re good shooters, but they’re not great shooters,” he said. “We were doing ourselves a disservice by letting them drive and then getting dumped-down feeds, kick outs. And they’ve got a good team. I give them all the credit in the world because that’s a solid group.”
Anna coach Nate Barhorst: “You have nothing to lose from here on out, you know you’re playing with house money. Now go out and do it. Nobody’s expecting you to get any further.”
The emphasis, of course, for the second half was to slow down and wear down Overman.
“At halftime I said, ‘Gosh, guys, are we gonna let him continue to be hot? Are we gonna wear his rear end down?’” Barhorst said. “And eventually I think that helped us out a little bit at the end. He just got to the point where he was a little gassed.”
Anna set the tone in the first quarter as the team that would play from the lead because of Myers’ hot start. He made consecutive 3-pointers from the left corner for an 8-3 lead and kept finding ways to score and share the team lead with Platfoot with 15 points. Myers’ early scoring forced the Indians to guard more of the floor.
Last-ditch effort for the Indians late in the fourth quarter trying to retrieve the ball from Anna.
“We’ve talked all season that Evan has to be the wild card,” Barhorst said. “When he goes, we go, and it kind of carries the other guys. They were giving a lot of attention to Evan based on that first quarter, which opened up the other guys, especially guys like Rhylan, to hit shots for us. He doesn’t understand just how much he means to this team.”
Feroze scored 13, kept the Rockets poised and played well in foul trouble until he fouled out with 1:32 left. Shappie didn’t let it bother him that he couldn’t get loose inside to score. He made all eight of his free throws, including six in the fourth quarter.
All of the contributions added up to a couple more practices, at least one more game and another district championship trophy.
“It was all of us,” Feroze said. “Even when things were down in the season, we all bought in, really started focusing on our strengths and never really giving up on each other. We knew that we could turn it around.”
Even if their record said they wouldn’t make it this far.
The Indians’ Briggs Overman had a “BIGG” game with a dunk and 25 points, which was game-high for both teams.