Drake Ahrens was one of the three Tigers to score 11 points. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
Both boys Division III sectional finals at Butler High School came down to the final seconds. Versailles got its to go to knock off No. 2 seed Indian Lake. Miami East couldn’t quite pull off a near miracle finish against Brookville.
Vandalia, OH – When the play breaks down, when you need a basket to advance in the tournament, a good place for the basketball is in the hands of the point guard.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Those hands make a coach feel safe. Those hands mean your team has a chance.
And the hands of Versailles sophomore Drake Ahrens and Miami East senior Jacob Roeth held the basketball Saturday when their teams needed the play of the season in their respective Division III sectional finals.
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You win some, you lose some.
For Ahrens, the result was a basket with three seconds left that extended the Tigers’ season in a 43-42 victory over Indian Lake.
For Roeth, the result was a last-second off-balance, leaning and contested 3-pointer that fell short and ended a great four-year run for Roeth in a 51-48 loss to Brookville.
A.J. Griesdorn and the Tigers stayed aggressive, drew fouls and put themselves in position to finally win.
Versailles had to fight back in the fourth quarter. The Tigers, the No. 11 seed, trailed the No. 2 Lakers (19-6) by nine points at halftime.
“Coach (Travis) Swank he preached on us: ‘You guys just gotta go out there play,’” Ahrens said. “‘You’ve got 16 more minutes. You guys have nothing else to do. We just got to go out there and play hard.’ And that’s all we did.”
The Tigers (13-11) chipped away until A.J. Griesdorn scored inside to cut the Lakers’ lead to 42-41 with 31 seconds left.
“Our grit,” Ahrens said was the reason for the comeback. “We put in the work, we’re aggressive and we just bring energy every game.”
The Tigers’ grit paid off and gave them a chance to win when the Lakers threw the ball out of bounds with 15 seconds left. Ahrens tried to get to the basket on the left side but pulled up for a short jumper near the baseline and made the winning basket. The Lakers couldn’t get off a clean shot at the buzzer.
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“I didn’t think it was going to go in at first, and then I started fading and it looked good,” Ahrens said. “If I got cut off, I was going to swing it to one of my teammates for an open look. But I felt confident, I shot it and it went in.”
Swank drew up a play that broke down. But he was glad the ball was in Ahrens’ hands. He made him the point guard last year as a freshman for a reason.
Carson Heitkamp scored 11 points to help keep the Tigers close enough to pull out the victory.
“We really trust the ball in his hands, and we wouldn’t give him that job as a freshman if we didn’t believe in him,” Swank said. “And we’ve believed in him ever since day one.”
The Tigers will play in a district final for the seventh time in eight years, which coincides with Swank’s tenure as head coach. The only year they missed was last year. And the Tigers often get to districts with nine, 10 or 11 losses against a difficult Midwest Athletic Conference schedule and a challenging non-conference schedule. They also usually deal with a deep playoff run by the football team as they did this year.
“Our kids just rise up and they want to be successful,” Swank said. “Our community expects our students to be successful, they expect our teams to be successful. I think our kids understand that, and they know they need to rise up when the opportunity is given to them.”
The Tigers got a balanced scoring effort. Ahrens, Griesdorn and Carson Heitkamp each scored 11 points and Jace Watren scored 10. They will take that same approach and effort into Wednesday’s 5:30 district final at UD Arena against Cincinnati Gamble Montessori. Brookville (18-6) will play in its first district final since 2017 in Wednesday’s second game against Cincinnati Mariemont.
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East’s hopes came down to the near-heroics by Roeth. The Vikings (16-9) trailed 48-40 when Connor Apple made a 3-pointer with 2:51 left. Brookville led 51-45 after two free throws with 51 seconds left.
Roeth missed a 3-point shot but Brookville knocked the ball out of bounds. A long inbounds pass from the baseline found Roeth open from 25 feet and he made a 3-pointer with seven seconds left to cut the deficit to three.
Jacob Roeth scores two of his game-high 23 points in his final game for the Vikings.
After East called timeout with 6.7 seconds left, the Vikings’ defense forced a long pass down the court. Roeth retreated for the steal, dribbled quickly up court and tried to force overtime. But his shot under heavy pressure didn’t have a chance.
“I wasn’t actually guarding that guy,” Roeth said. “I saw him go deep, I saw the kid start to wind up, and I just took off.”
Roeth knew he had six seconds and probably five dribbles before he had to shoot.
“I thought maybe I could draw a foul,” he said. “The kid pulled his arms up, so once I got up, I just shot it. It was frustrating because I knew as soon as it left my hand it was short. But we still got a great look to tie it up.”
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Roeth ends his four years as East’s starting point guard as the school’s career scoring leader with 1,762 points.
“Four years went by so fast,” he said. “We had a great year, and I wouldn’t rather do it with any other guys. It was just amazing to be a part of this team. They pushed me to be better, and I’m grateful for that.”
Freshman Ty Rohrer scored nine points to help keep the Vikings close enough for a chance in the final seconds.
The Vikings battled through the up-and-down game like they did all season. They led 7-0, trailed by two points at halftime, by eight early in the second half and rallied to the score heading to the fourth quarter. Then Brookville, which was led by Jace Wood’s 22 points, pushed the lead back to eight to set up the Vikings’ final push.
“I was just really, really proud of our guys for just never giving up all the way until the very last seconds,” Vikings coach Justin Roeth said. “It seemed like we played the clock the right way. We just didn’t finish with a tie to get us to overtime.”
But Roeth smiled and said it was OK. They all wanted to win, but his team’s effort made him happy.
“They are going to be successful in life,” he said. “They’ve battled a lot of adversity this year and constantly overcome everything that’s thrown their way. We talked to them about how this is just a glimpse into the success you’ll have in life when you face some adversity. We feel like we’ve had successes.”
Versailles celebrated its seventh trip to districts in the past eight years.
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