Upper holds on to late lead against Columbian

By LONNIE McMILLAN

Sports editor

Only one night before, Upper Sandusky had a lead it could not hold.

This time, when their advantage began to slip away, the Rams held tough and took a 68-62 victory against Tiffin Columbian on Saturday night at home.

The Tornadoes (0-2) cut an 18-point second half deficit down to two in the closing minute, just as Colonel Crawford erased an eight-point lead with 2:30 to play Friday night. This time, Upper Sandusky mostly avoided turnovers and made free throws to close it out, even as Columbian continued to hit big shots. It still was far from perfect, but it was good enough.

“From last night, it was a step up,” Upper Sandusky coach Jeff Winslow said. “We kept our composure; we improved our discipline. What won us the game tonight was down the stretch we had composure and discipline that we didn’t have the night before. It’s kind of funny. We harped on that all morning, was really disappointed in those things, and tonight, they came out and showed they learned from those mistakes last night, and that’s a team that’s getting better.”

Josh Heilman led the balanced Rams (2-1) with 19 points. Brock Montgomery scored 10 of his 14 points at the free-throw line, and all five starters had nine or more points.

Columbian’s Zach Shawberry scored 12 of his game-high 28 points in the fourth quarter.

“That’ll be the second game we’ve dug ourselves a hole, and we don’t want that to become a habit of ours,” Columbian coach Ryan Fretz said. “We’re a team that is still learning to play varsity basketball. There’s some inconsistencies, and that’s two games where we haven’t been consistent enough to keep a lead or win a basketball game.”

Upper Sandusky (2-1) turned a three-point deficit in the second quarter into a commanding lead with a 15-0 run and had a 34-23 halftime advantage. The Rams then went on a 12-3 run in the third quarter to move in front 52-34 late in the third quarter, and they were up 58-42 going into the fourth quarter.

Shawberry helped the Tornadoes respond by scoring the first nine points of the third quarter to get his team to within 58-51 with 5:40 still to play. The Rams missed all eight of their field goal tries in the final eight minutes and did not score until Luke Schoenberger split two free throws with 3:34 left.

“I just turned to my assistant and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, here we go again,’” Winslow said. “But we’ve got two really good senior guards in Brock and Justin. Then I thought Josh Heilman stepped up and really a made a lot of plays off the bounce, which he hasn’t been doing. He was the difference in the game.”

Logan Gooding drained a 3-pointer, and followed a missed layup by Upper Sandusky, Logan Smith wound up wide open inside for a basket that made it 59-56 with 2:34 left. After two Brock Montgomery free throws, Shawberry drained another shot from deep to cut Columbian’s deficit to just two.

An offensive foul gave the Tornadoes a chance to tie or take the lead, but Montgomery came up with a steal, and from there. He made another big play by grabbing an offensive rebound after Wyatt Taylor missed the second of two free throws, and overall, the Rams made 7 of 10 from the foul line in the final 1:04 to close it out.

Gooding, who scored 11 points, hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the first quarter to start a 10-0 run that gave the Tornadoes a 16-10 lead, and they still had a 20-17 advantage early in the second quarter when the Rams took over.

Luke Schoenberger began the big run with a putback and then a 3-pointer. Josh Heilman had a steal and layup and then drained a 3-pointer to make it 27-20, and Justin Heilman followed with another trey. Montgomery then got to the basket for a layup for a 32-20 lead.

“We made a run, and we thought the game was over, and that’s the sign of a young team,” Fredtz said. “We make a run and yet it’s the beginning of the second quarter and there’s still more basketball to be played, and we took a hard lesson learning it tonight and hopefully we don’t have to do that moving forward.”

Josh Heilman sparked another run in the third quarter with a 3-pointer and then a basket inside. Kaimen Iles added a three-point play and then two more points inside during a 10-1 run.

“Defend and rebound,” Winslow said. “We defend, we rebound, we get out and run our break and we’re getting good looks.”

Justin Heilman finished with 12 points and a team-leading six rebounds. Schoenberger had 10 points, and Iles tallied nine points and five rebounds.

DaShawn Russell had 12 points for Columbian.

Following what Winslow described as one of the toughest losses in his coaching career, the Rams had an overall strong showing Saturday night.

“They used last night in a positive way, and with kids it can go either way,” Winslow said. “They can pout and come out and be flat and terrible or they can rise to the occasion. We’ve got a bunch of good kids who they chose to rise to the occasion.”

Lucas Alspach had 15 points to lead the Rams to a 43-25 junior varsity victory.

Upper Sandusky plays at 6 p.m. Thursday at Wynford.

TIFFIN COLUMBIAN (0-2): Shawberry 10-6-28, Russell 4-3-12, Gooding 4-0-11, Hickey 3-0-7, Smith 1-0-2, Willman 1-0-2. Totals 23-63 9-14 62.

UPPER SANDUSKY (2-1): Jo. Heilman 7-2-19, Montgomery 2-10-14, Ju. Heilman 3-5-12, Schoenberger 4-1-10, Iles 4-1-9, Gibson 1-1-3, Taylor 0-1-1. Totals 21-45 21-32 68.

3-point goals: Gooding 3, Jo. Heilman 3, Shawberry 2, Russell, Hickey, Ju. Heilman, Schoenberger.

Score by quarters

Tiffin Columbian          16          7             19          2             — 62

Upper Sandusky          11          23          24          10          — 68

Junior varsity: Upper Sandusky won 43-25.