Drake Ahrens scored 27 points in his final game for Versailles. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Lee Woolery)
A Division V semifinal game between Versailles and Waynesville started late and ended later, but only the Spartans get to keep playing.
By Marcus Hartman for Press Pros
Fairborn, OH — Versailles looked like it would get the better of Waynesville most of the night Tuesday at Fairborn High School.
Sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way you want, though, and that was main the takeaway from Versailles coach Travis Swank after his team lost a 73-67 heartbreaker in double overtime in a Division V regional semifinal.
“So that’s basketball — when you play the game of basketball, you need some breaks, and we just didn’t get enough breaks here tonight,” Swank said after his team finished the season 18-7.
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Early on the Tigers didn’t look like they would need any breaks. They nearly knocked the Spartans (24-2) out early, jumping out to a 13-1 lead, and held a 27-17 advantage at halftime.
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But danger signs cropped up early in the third quarter.
Versailles center Maddox Stonebraker, a 6-foot-8 junior, picked up his third and fourth fouls less than 90 seconds after halftime and had to go to the bench with his team leading 29-21.
From there, they managed to keep the smaller Spartans at bay thanks mostly to the heroics of senior point guard Drake Ahrens, but he picked up his third foul on a charge and went to the bench with 2:48 to go in the third.
The Tigers still led by eight with two minutes left in the quarter, but the Spartans ended the quarter on a 7-0 run and sent their crowd into a frenzy.
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Then to no one’s surprise, Ahrens came back and went right to the hole for a layup on the first possession of the fourth quarter.
That seemed to restore order, but the reprieve was only temporary as he went hard to the hoop again the next possession and picked up another offensive foul.
Things got worse soon when Stonebraker was trying to get to the basket and whistled for getting too aggressive with his off arm. He fouled out with 6:06 to go and just three points, but everyone else’s night was far from over.
Versailles big man Maddox Stonebraker got into foul trouble and fouled out in the fourth quarter.
Waynesville point guard Zevin Sesslar tied the game with a trey with 29 seconds to go and had a chance to win it on a drive in regulation, but his wild layup attempt and a put-back try by a teammate both went awry.
After leading most of the game, the Tigers were actually fortunate to make it to overtime, but it wasn’t all bad news.
On the bright side, they still had Drake Ahrens and a 2-3 zone Swank went to in the middle of the fourth quarter that put the Spartans offense firmly in neutral.
Until Sesslar’s 3, which was a deep one and came off an offensive rebound, Waynesville’s only field goal in the last six minutes was that layup by Rutledge, and that was off an inbound play.
“We don’t show a lot of zone,” Swank said. “Our physical man was really good for us for a while, and then with our foul trouble, we felt like we needed to go zone just to help out with the foul trouble situation. And it did stymie him a little bit today, they started finding started finding some weak spots in it and hit some big shots towards the end.”
The zone continued to be effective early in overtime, but they call the game “basketball” because it’s about putting the ball in the basket, and Versailles had a hard time doing that at times.
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That became a problem when the Spartans eventually started to get some good looks and took advantage, but the Tigers still grabbed a four-point lead on a pull-up shot by Ahrens and a fast break layup by Carson Bergman.
Then the Spartans quickly grabbed the momentum right back as Andrew Stupp made it a one-point game with a 3 then poked the ball away from Ahrens in the backcourt and had a teammate pass it right back to him for a wide-open layup that put Waynesville ahead with under a minute to go.
Reed Raterman hits a 3-pointer for Versailles.
But was that just setting up Ahrens to be a hero?
For a moment, it looked like it was. The Tiger point guard scored on another pull-up jumper with 40 seconds to go for a 56-55 Versailles lead — only to see Sesslar knife into the lane and get fouled.
He made one free throw to tie it, but the Spartans got the offensive rebound on his miss and called timeout.
Out of the break, Lucas Rocha had a great look at a 3-pointer in the corner in front of his student section as time ran down. It was off the mark, but that would not be the last opportunity for Rocha.
In double overtime, he found the range twice from beyond the arc.
The second gave Waynesville a 62-60 lead with 2:30 to go, and then the Spartans put a stranglehold on the game thanks to an intentional foul call that went against Wilker with 1:49 to go.
In a scramble for a rebound, Wilker pulled Rutledge down from behind. The Spartan sophomore crashed to the floor hard, and an official ran in from center court with both arms crossed above his head to signal it was more than just a common foul.
That meant two free throws for Rutledge, and he made both.
The Spartans also got the ball, and Sesslar made two more from the charity stripe after a foul was called off the ball on Bergman.
“Our kid came down and had his arm, and he did wrap around him,” Swank said. “I don’t know if he pulled him down or he was trying to brace his fall. It’s a judgment call, and at the end of the day, that’s what it is.”
Kade Schwartz gets two in the paint for Versailles.
Waynesville hit 9 of 10 free throws in the final 61 seconds to salt away the game.
The miss came with seven seconds left, but by then it didn’t matter.
Sesslar and Rutledge ended up with 17 points apiece while Rocha notched 15 and Stupp had 11.
Swank pulled his seniors, including Ahrens, off the floor for a final ovation, and the Waynesville crowd rushed the court after the final horn sounded.
Final score: Waynesville 73, Versailles 67.
When all was said and done. Waynesville’s grit and relentless attacking on defense overcame Versailles’ size advantage (especially when the biggest Tiger fouled out).
“We’re a team that makes some really long runs, puts a lot of pressure on people defensively,” Waynesville coach Brandon Philpot said. “And we knew eventually we would get that roller coaster to go on our side.
“I mean, Versailles is a heck of a ball club. Coach Travis does a great job there, and the Ahrens kid is phenomenal.”
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In his last game for the Tigers, Ahrens scored 27 points while Blake Monnin had 10 and Wilker added nine.
“We tried triple teaming him, double teaming him and helping and doing everything we could, and he still found ways to score,” Philpot said of Ahrens. “Kudos to him and that whole program. They’re used to being here, and we’re now wanting this to be the norm.”
Versailles coach Travis Swank calls a time out in first overtime.
While the Spartans will play in the region final against Cincinnati Summit Country Day — a 78-68 winner over Cincinnati North College Hill in the first game Tuesday night in Fairborn — the Tigers are done.
After a long talk with his players, Swank emerged from the locker room to speak to local radio and reporters.
He was frank and philosophical, having no doubt faced a much tougher crowd in his locker room, which included six seniors who were about to take off the Versailles uniform for the last time.
“Proud, disappointed — you know, wishing we still had one more game,” he said. “But that’s the game of life, though, too. You’re not always going to win. You got to go back to work tomorrow morning, and the sun is going to rise up for us, and we’ve got to go back to school. We’ve got to be students. I’m a teacher. I’ve got to be a teacher. So it is disappointing, but life does not slow down for anybody. And that’s what’s going to happen to us. And we’re going to go back to work and get better.”
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