Brayden Heath redeemed a poor first half with 20 points and pinpoint three-point shooting in the second half. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
St. Henry finally showed its full arsenal Friday in a thrilling double-overtime win over Fort Recovery. But is this the St. Henry so anticipated since winning the Division VI football title? The man who counts the most says…yes!
St. Henry, OH – In a high school basketball game that featured more twists and turns Friday than a Formula One circuit, Eric Rosenbeck’s #2 seed St. Henry Redskins finally showed what all the fuss has been about as they hovered this week over a 15-6 season record.
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And it took two overtime periods for them to finally subdue a stubborn Fort Recovery team that by some people’s estimation should have – or at least could have – won the game, but didn’t.
The reason? St. Henry got in their way, finally winning after forty minutes of thrill-a-minute basketball, 74-69.
Effort…skill…shooting…defense…grit…resiliency…and depth? Yeah, the Redskins showed all of it, while impressively coming back from an eight-point deficit midway through the third quarter when Fort Recovery was playing like anything but a young and inexperienced basketball team.
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St. Henry never quit. One, because it was Senior Night, and with that kind of competitive legacy…there’s no such thing as quit.
They overcame repeated surges by Fort Recovery, 43% shooting form the field by the Indians, and 48% shooting from behind the three point line. And that included 6 of 10 shooting from behind the arc by 6’3″, 260 pound sophomore Hudson Overman, who would finish his best night ever as an athlete (so far, at least) with a game-high 27 points.
They overcame the blips and blurps and mistakes that come with every high school basketball game, including a reprieve at the end of the first overtime when Fort Recovery’s Breaker Jutte took a lob from out of bounds under the basket with St. Henry’s Brayden Heath hanging all over him…but was never whistled for a foul that would have sent Jutte to the line with a chance to win the game with a free throw.
Jack Huelsman bolts to the basket in the first half for two of his season-high 21 points.
But most impressively, the #2 seed Redskins may have proved to those who question that they indeed do belong amongst the top Division VI candidates for a title in Ohio basketball come a month from now. And oh, by the way. You have to have luck, besides all the afore-mentioned to win a title, and the ‘Skins left little doubt by game’s end that they had some of that, too.
“Right now it feels like what I’ve felt for the entire year with this group,” said coach Eric Rosenbeck, afterwards. “We have six losses, and I think we’re all a little disappointed with that. But you saw what the volleyball team did, you saw the football team win the state title, and a lot of our guys played on that football team. We know that when we’re at our peak we can run with anyone in Division VI.
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“So tonight only confirms what I already knew. If the last ball hadn’t bounced our way, I would have still known that these guys are capable of getting it done, one way or another. They’re too good a kids. They work too hard. They’re raised right…anything else you want to say positive about them. That’s how I feel about them tonight.”
It’s called ‘tourney mojo’, and they needed this one. A win is a win is a win, of course. But Recovery, who came within a whisker of knocking off unbeaten Tri-Village last Saturday night, is its own team on the rise, and one that coach Bob Leverette claims is bound to be someone’s tough out come the tournament.
The impressive thing about the talented 12-10 Indians? They play with an absence of pressure. Their glass has been half full from the outset of the year, despite the 10 losses.
Based on the three-point shooting of Hudson Overman and teammate Braylon Dilworth, they led St. Henry after the first eight minutes of basketball Friday, 15-12.
The Indians took St. Henry’s best shot from senior Jack Huelsman (9 points) during the second quarter…by hitting seven consecutive free throws and another Dilworth three-pointer and led 31-29 at halftime.
Something, dammit, has got to give on Senior Night, and there was that air of anticipation for St. Henry, who had hit a buzzer-beater shot at the end of the half to close the score to within two points.
But Fort Recovery promptly sprinted out to a 34-26 lead by the mid-point of the third quarter…thanks to the miraculous play of Overman, who canned three consecutive three-pointers with St. Henry defenders hanging on him. It didn’t matter, he hit ’em anyway
Some late defense when it was needed…Charlie Werling gets. hand on the shot of Fort Recovery’s Brody Barga.
And none of it mattered to Jack Huelsman, Brayden Heath, and the gritty play of Landon Schwartz, Max Delzeith, Charlie Werling, Austin Zimmerman, and a bit of Tate Boeckman thrown in.
Huelsman and Heath kept getting a step on Recovery’s backcourt defenders, kept getting to the lane, and point-by-point began cutting away at that eight-point lead…at the rim or at the foul line.
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“Was I comfortable with the eight-point lead?” said Leverette. “No. Have you been to a game here before? We were playing at a high level, we’re getting what we want. But in this gym I could be up by thirty or forty and not feel comfortable.”
By the end of the third quarter Fort Recovery led 47-43…but you could feel the tension, and you could sense the desire of a Brayden Heath to redeem himself for a disappointing first half in which he scored just two points.
Fort Recovery’s Hudson Overman powers his way to the rim through St. Henry’s Brayden Heath and two of his game-high 27 points.
Heath came to life, hit back-to-back three-pointers to start the fourth quarter and within moments St. Henry had captured the lead for the first time since the first quarter, 48-47, at the 6:00 mark. The teams began trading baskets…free throws…St. Henry clinging to a three-point lead. Huelsman scored his 21st point of the game with a drive to the rim that gave St. Henry its biggest least of the game, 55-50.
Brayden Heath’s three-pointer extended their lead to 58-52.
Hudson Overman’s three-point play against cut the lead to three points as the clock worked down under a minute. At 1:00 a Braylon Dilworth three-pointer tied the score at 60-60…to force overtime.
Overtime proved to be little more than replay of the final four minutes of regulation. Trading free throws, trading points, players fouling out simply because of the length of game. And at 64-63, Charlie Werling hit a pair of foul shots that gave St. Henry the 66-63 lead .
But with just seconds between them an victory, once again Hudson Overman found himself with the ball at the top of the key and launched it with a pair of defenders converging. Of course, it went in to tie the game at 66-66. And with 2.7 second left, St. Henry took the ball out of bounds and threw it into the rafters, trying to get the ball to midcourt for a last-second shot.
Now it Recovery’s ball out under their own rim, and the alley-oop pass to Breaker Jutte. The pass was perfect but Jutte never got his hands on it because someone (Heath) was on his back and it went unnoticed as the clock ran out.
And a second overtime.
More than anything, Fort Recovery became a victim of physical and mental attrition after taking a 67-66 lead. They had a couple of empty possessions. Hudson Overman was suffocating from the attention he received from St. Henry’s defense. And Brayden Heath just kept going to the line and hitting free throws. And not to be unnecessarily brief…but that’s how it ended. Leading 72-69, Heath stepped to the line to hit a pair with two seconds remaining, and Senior Night became about something more than flowers and home-made cookies.
“This was a lot of fun on Senior Night,” said Charlie Werling. “We’ve never played in a double-overtime game, but we have eight or nine guys on our team that we can trust. We throw ’em in there and they contribute, and they’ve been doing that all year.”
Truly a tournament-atmosphere win, Eric Rosenbeck’s words can well be borne out if double-overtime is what it ultimately takes to make St. Henry find the commitment and consistency that he (Rosenbeck) has believed in all year.
Bob Leverette, despite a disheartening loss, could still find a glass half full.
“Think about Breaker Jutte only scoring 2 points for us tonight,” said Leverette, managing a confident smile. “Now what happens when he get’s going? I said it last week. We’re fine. We’re resilient. Our goal is still intact.”
If you’re Eric Rosenbeck, he’ll think forward knowing that Jack Huelsman finished with 21 points, and how Brayden Heath totally redeemed himself after 2 points in the first half…with 22 for the game!
Good kids…they work hard…they’re raised right. Those were his concluding words.
All you need to know.
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