Shippensburg rallies past New Oxford
In a game very similar to the teams' first matchup, Shippensburg trailed for most of the game before walking down New Oxford in the fourth quarter and defeating the Colonials.
This time, the Greyhounds came back from a 10-point hole to earn a 65-61 victory Monday night at New Oxford.
In their first meeting, nine days earlier, the Hounds trailed by eight points in the third quarter and didn't lead until the final 17 seconds of the game in a 60-57 win.
Monday, New Oxford led 42-32 midway through the third quarter and still held a 60-53 lead with five minutes left in the game.
Teagan Staver started the final push to victory with a hoop at the 4:43 mark of the fourth quarter.
Wade Mills then tied the game at 60 with 2:35 remaining before Shuntan Hickman gave Ship the lead for good with a pair of charity tosses with 2:01 to go.
New Oxford (0-5) trailed 64-61 with under a half minute to play and had a chance to tie the game, but Ben Lehman's triple attempt with 12 seconds to go went off the front of the rim.
"We had multiple options on that last play. Either Ben or John Wessel was going to take the shot there," New Oxford head coach Sean Bair said. "I trust either of them to take a shot with the game on the line more than I would trust myself."
Carter VanScyoc split a pair of free-throw attempts that salted the game away for Ship.
"Their coach does a nice job with that team and they have a couple of nice pieces over there," Shippensburg coach Ray Staver said. "Sometimes you have to learn how to win games, and as long as I've been coaching, I've had a few teams like that. We made a lot of plays down the stretch to win the ball game."
"We play our top three guys (Wessel, Lehman and Devon Duvall) almost the entire game," Bair said, "and it's hard to ask any more from them than they give us. There's no substitute for winning games. We can't simulate that in practice. You can drill defense, you can drill shooting, but that you can't."
A back-and-forth opening frame ended with the contest knotted at 15, but the Colonials took control in the second quarter when they connected on 5-of-10 shots from beyond the arc in the frame.
Ship (4-1) cut the lead to 26-24 on Mills' bucket with 2:48 left in the half, but New Oxford finished the quarter on a 10-2 run and led 36-26 at the half.
New Oxford (0-5) maintained the 10-point edge until Mills got his team going in the third quarter on a run that closed the gap to 52-48 heading for the final stanza.
Mills finished the game with 21 points and 14 rebounds, along with a pair of blocks.
"Wade is a long kid and he had a strong motor tonight," Staver said. "He doesn't always have that. But he played really hard and got some big buckets and some big boards for us tonight."
Hickman added 14 points and five assists to the winning effort, while the Colonials were paced by 24 points and seven rebounds from Duvall and 15 points from Wessel.
Shippensburg (65)
Adam Houser 0 0-0 0, Clayton Stine 0 0-0 0, Cody Gustafson 4 1-3 9, Payton Fridinger 1 0-0 3, Brady Kuhn 0 1-3 1, Wade Mills 10 1-4 21, Teagan Staver 2 3-4 7, Shuntan Hickman 5 2-2 14, Carter VanScyoc 3 4-6 10, Garret Cavanaugh 0 0-0 0. Totals — 25 12-22 65.
New Oxford (61)
Zach Rudisill 0 0-0 0, Joey Stiles 2 1-2 6, Trevor Floyd 2 0-0 6, Jordin Brown 1 0-0 3, Devon Duvall 9 6-7 24, Ben Lehman 2 0-0 5, John Wessel 6 0-0 15, Justin Gruver 0 2-2 2. Totals — 22 9-11 61.
Shippensburg _15 _11 _22 _17 - _65
New Oxford _15 _21 _16 _9 - _61
3-point goals — Ship 3 (Hickman 2, Fridinger), NO 8 (Wessel 3, Floyd 2, Stiles, Brown, Lehman).
JV score — Shippensburg 38, New Oxford 37. Ethan Bert had 12 points for Ship.