Tippecanoe players console senior and team leader C.J. Bailey after he missed the final shot at the end of Tuesday’s loss at Xavier. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Logan Howard)
The Red Devils, already deeper in the tournament than most thought probable, lose in the final seconds when a play on each end of the floor goes Trotwood’s way.
Cincinnati, OH – Tippecanoe senior C.J. Bailey didn’t think. He just shot. With 1.1 seconds on the clock, catch-and-shoot on an inbounds play is all you have time for.
But when Bailey’s 3-point shot from the left corner bounced off the rim, all that was left was for him to think. To think about what could have been, after the Red Devils lost 46-44 to Trotwood-Madison in the Division III region semifinals Tuesday night at Xavier’s Cintas Center.
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“One second – just try to get the ball up,” he said. “Wasn’t much thought in my head until I missed when I realized my season was over and that was my career. It kind of sucks to end a career with a game-winning miss. But it’s OK.”
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com. Follow on X @jw_gilbert
Tippecanoe coach Brock Moon didn’t necessarily expect his best player and the Southwest District Division III player of the year to be so open. The Rams had face-guarded Bailey for 32 minutes. Someone else slipping open on the back side was more likely. But Bailey popped open and David Alvarez’s pass from the baseline was on target.
“I’ll take that shot 100 times over,” Moon said. “That’s our best player, taking a corner three, and that’s what I told him. I told the kids, you think of that last play and that it comes down to that, but there’s 100 plays before that that matter. So I’ll take it over and over.”
Moon is right. Many other plays could have made the winning difference for the Red Devils. Take away one or two of the Red Devils’ 16 turnovers against a ball-hawking, physical defense that led to 16 Trotwood points. Make another shot or two somewhere along the way. Get another rebound or two and don’t allow 12 second-chance points.
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But the biggest of those 100 plays will be more difficult to forget than Bailey’s last shot or any of the rest. The Red Devils will play it over and over in their minds and watch the video.
With the score tied at 44, the Rams held the ball starting at the 1:45 mark. When it was go time, Darius Dennis dribbled into the paint toward Tipp’s Colin Turner.
Tippecanoe sophomore Hudson Ganger scores during the Red Devils’ 8-0 run to close the third quarter that put them ahead 39-31.
There was a collision.
Turner went flying and sliding to the floor.
Dennis spun back to his left hand.
He made a difficult one-handed shot with his left hand over Tipp 6-foot-7 senior center Bryton Otto with 3.5 seconds left to take the lead.
“I’ll say it – that’s a charge,” Moon said. “That’s a push off on a great defensive possession where a kid steps in front of a kid going to his right hand and takes one right in the chest. That’s a charge.”
But no whistle.
And Tipp (20-6) was left to wonder who decided the game in that moment. The players or the officials.
Tipp had its final chance and advanced the ball to halfcourt where it was knocked out of bounds. Then Trotwood gave a fourth foul against Otto near the basket while Tipp tried to inbound for a final shot. That moved the ball to the baseline to set up Bailey’s shot that bounced the Red Devils out of the tournament.
Trotwood (20-4) meets Hamilton Badin, a 69-59 winner over Cincinnati Hughes, back at Xavier at 3 p.m. Saturday in the regional final.
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In a game with eight lead changes and nine ties, Tipp made an 8-0 run in the final two minutes of the third quarter to forge a 39-31 lead. But the Rams, who shot only 37.3% began to make shots, Tipp didn’t and a 15-5 fourth quarter in favor of Trotwood was the difference.
Bailey, who averages 15 points a game, was held to three on a first-half 3-pointer and 1 of 10 shooting. He was guarded tightly by Trotwood’s best player, Je’Carious Reaves, who scored a game-high 17 points.
“The team was all crying in there. Everyone’s upset. It wasn’t like we lost, we’re going home. It was more we lost, our season’s over. It just says we cared about each other.” – Tippecanoe senior C.J. Bailey
“He’s a really talented guard, one of the best guards in Dayton for sure,” Bailey said. “He’s a strong, physical, talented player. I put that on myself. I didn’t try hard enough to get what I needed to do for us to win. And so I take the blame on that one.”
Moon said he didn’t realize Bailey’s points total because he was doing so many other things well like handing out six assists and leading a strong defensive effort.
“He made the right plays, he was finding the open guys,” Moon said. “Their game plan was to take him away. And they did it. They made it difficult for him. Sometimes you have those games as a player. But to his credit, I thought he competed really well on defense and did all those things for us that make a difference and keep you in the game.”
Tipp’s offense came from sophomore guard Hudson Ganger with 13 points, Otto with 11 and senior Colin Turner with 10. They shot 47.4%, but the 15 turnovers and minus-5 in offensive rebounds allowed Trotwood to attempt 13 more shots.
“The pressure got us,” Moon said. “They’re a very athletic team. They got us out of sets. We’ve become reliant at times on executing sets, and they did a great job of not letting us get to our stuff. And obviously C.J. is a big part of that, and they did a great job of face guarding him and making every catch he had difficult.”
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That Tipp was playing Tuesday was unexpected. Few gave them a chance in Sunday’s district final to beat Cincinnati La Salle out of the vaunted Greater Catholic League. But the Red Devils overcame a 19-point deficit, ran off 16 straight points late in the game, and emerged with a thrilling 59-58 victory.
“The La Salle game will be a memory for a lifetime,” Moon said. “To score 16 straight in that amount of time, and everything to go our way? I still replay it in my head, and I’m sure the kids will.”
Tippecanoe’s Bryton Otto battled the Rams inside for rebounds and scoring opportunities for four quarters.
Against La Salle, Bailey made half of his shots and scored 23 points. Ganger scored 15. Turner had five assists and six rebounds.
Tippecanoe senior Bryton Otto made some difficult and timely baskets and finished with 11 points.
“We weren’t ready to go home and had that fight in us,” Bailey said. “We’ve got a sophomore [Ganger] who has unreal confidence, and we have a big man [Otto] first-year varsity. He just killed it this year. Colin took a big step. He might not have the stats that show it, but without him – he’s our glue – we would not be where we are.”
The Red Devils traveled back to Xavier Tuesday surrounded by the same doubts from outsiders. But the team didn’t doubt. Moon told them they could win and not to listen to the doubters.
“We weren’t willing to just listen to what everyone else had to say,” Bailey said. “We cared. We had fight in us. The team was all crying in there. Everyone’s upset. It wasn’t like we lost, we’re going home. It was more we lost, our season’s over. It just says we cared about each other. We had a bond like no other, best bond I’ve had in my four years here for sure. And that’s the reason we made it this far.”
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