One of the first shots of the night came from Carson Heitcamp, behind the arc for a tre. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
A few lengthy scoring droughts and a hot shooting night for Preble Shawnee’s Mason Shrout proved too much to overcome for Versailles. They bow out of the tournament one game shy of state, but reflect on an outstanding final six weeks of their season.
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Kettering, OH – Versailles’ bid for state ended just one game early at the hands of a talented Preble Shawnee team with a stifling defense.
Basketball fans like to label everything a “Cinderella run” in March. But calling four straight tournament wins and a trip to the Regional Final a Cinderella run for Versailles wouldn’t quite be right. Despite their 11-11 regular season, and 11th seeding in the tournament, the Tigers were always good enough to go deep, they just didn’t unlock their full potential until February.
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Their four-game tournament win streak included victories over 2 seeds Indian Lake and Gamble Montessori, and 3 seed Mariemont. They brought home hardware for their sectional title, district title, and got some more tonight for appearing in the regional title game.
“This run has been about hard work and going game by game,” senior forward Carson Heitkamp said. “It’s hard when everyone thinks you’re not gonna go anywhere. You just have to push through. But it definitely was cool proving those people wrong.”
But in any sense in which they were Cinderella, the clock struck midnight to the tune of a 53-32 loss to Preble Shawnee.
In spurts, the Tigers kept pace with the Arrows, but ultimately couldn’t overcome offensive inconsistency.
Preble Shawnee’s Brayden Robinette attempts to block the shot of Versailles Drake Ahrens.
With 3:21 to go in the first quarter the teams were knotted at 11, with shooters wearing both black and white raining down threes.
“I thought we kinda rushed offensively which led to some easy baskets for Versailles,” said Preble Shawnee coach Jake Turner, whose visible and audible frustration mostly subsided after those first five minutes.
But Preble Shawnee tightened up on both sides, especially the defense which closed out on shooters, and got rough in the paint.
“It was physical out there today, it was like a MAC game.” Versailles coach Travis Swank said.
The officials let a whole lot of contact down low slide, and the Arrows took full advantage by getting bodies on dribble drivers.
Getting that physicality advantage bought Preble Shawnee a 12-minute 13-2 run lasting to the end of the first half. Mr. Ohio finalist Mason Shrout led the charge on offense. He swished a three from each corner, and another from up top in the waning seconds of the half.
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Shrout scored 28 on the night, including five of nine shooting from three. He was hard to miss with that kind of jump shooting, but also wasn’t coy about making his presence known by pumping up his supporting crowd and blowing chef’s kisses to the fans in black and orange.
“I come on the court with the mentality of thinking I’m the best player on the court every time I step on,” Shrout said. “I was little bit more fired up than normal tonight, but it’s all in fun … I try to stay grounded, but sometimes I let the game get to my head a little bit, get a little too excited, a little too arrogant I guess people say, but I don’t mean it in a bad way.”
Logan Hawley (44) and AJ Griesdorn (R) scramble for a loose ball.
Call it confidence, arrogance, cockiness, you be the judge. But no matter what you think about all that, not even the Tiger faithful denied he’s a skilled player. His second four-point play in two games spoke to that.
Despite their offensive difficulties, Versailles actually held its own on defense, which gave them a fighting chance trailing 24-13 at the half.
From turnovers to rebounds the first half stat sheet looked fairly even keeled, with the lone significant exception that Preble’s shots kept finding nylon, and Versailles’ seemed to find ways to escape the hole.
Neither team scored hardly anything from the paint, The Arrows because they shot more threes than twos, and the Tigers because every time they tried, either their shot got blocked or their body got clobbered.
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6’8” Logan Hawley played a huge role protecting Preble Shawnee’s basket, racking up four blocks. Brayden Robinette tacked on two swats as well.
Versailles’ Senior forward Carson Heitkamp embraced the game’s physicality, cleaning up the glass with a game-leading 11 rebounds.
Mason Shrout – “I come on the court with the mentality of thinking I’m the best player on the court. I was little bit more fired up than normal tonight, but it’s all in fun … I try to stay grounded, but sometimes I let the game get to my head a little bit, get a little too excited, a little too arrogant I guess people say, but I don’t mean it in a bad way.”
The Tigers played their best in the third quarter, scoring 15 points. Jace Watren stepped up offensively, snapping the net on a corner three to spark the second half.
A fast break layup sliced the deficit to six, but Versailles never crept any closer than that.
The second half echoed the first. After an impressive scoring display, Versailles went cold. They scored just four points in the fourth quarter and the gap gradually expanded to 53-32 at the final horn.
Watren led the Tigers with 10 points, followed by Heitkamp and Drake Ahrens with six. For Preble Shawnee, Brody Morton added 11 to Shrout’s 28.
An impressive run came to an unfortunate end, though by no means a premature one. Earning this spot, a spot that no other MAC team earned this year, is an impressive statement of its own.
Heitkamp, A.J. Griesdorn and Gabe White graduate from the team this spring, and they’ll do so as district champions and regional runner-ups.
Jace Watren’s lay-up is stopped in motion by Preble Shawnee’s Brayden Robinette.
Swank reflected on what each senior has meant to the program.
“Gabe being a leader has been big,” he said. “After the Ponitz game Gabe talked to everyone in the locker room and that was such a turning point in our season.”
After that speech the Tigers won eight of their next nine matches, including their four tournament victories.
“Carson had a great last month,” Swank said. “He just developed and decided that he didn’t want his season to end early. He just kept on being tenacious.”
Tenacious is the perfect word for Heitkamp tonight, who fought tooth and nail for rebounds and kept taking good shots even when he wasn’t seeing them go down too often.
“A.J. has been the steady guy for us,” Swank said. “We’ve asked a lot out of him this year being the only senior that really had experience. He’s done it on the football field, on the basketball court, and he’s probably gonna do it again on the baseball field. He’s been asked to be a dude in all three seasons and that’s not easy.”
While Preble Shawnee advances to the state semifinals for the first time in school history to face Lutheran East, the Tigers start scheming not a rebuild, but a reload in hopes of another deep run a year from now.
AJ Griesdorn drew a foul to shoot one at the foul line without any defenders around him.
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