Semoball

Clarkton boys basketball edges Holcomb 51-49 to win Tri-County Tournament for first time since 2009

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
The Clarkton varsity boys basketball team with its first-place plaque after beating Holcomb 51-49 in the championship of the Tri-County Conference varsity boys basketball tournament Saturday night at Holcomb High School.

HOLCOMB - The Clarkton Reindeer varsity boys basketball squad attempted to slow things down early on in the second game of its doubleheader against the Holcomb Hornets Saturday.

"We tried to conserve our legs a little bit at the beginning,” Clarkton coach Jordan Bidwell said. “But our kids like to run up and down. Plus Holcomb is a well-coached team that runs their sets well. After we got behind my assistant, coach Redden, said we’ve just got to let our kids play. Once we let our kids loose we started forcing turnovers. We stopped thinking about it and just went and made some buckets.”

The strategy to speed things up proved valuable for the Reindeer. Clarkton fell behind Holcomb 10-0 in the first quarter but erased all of its trouble fast as it won the second quarter by a dozen points to move ahead 23-19 by the halftime break.

Things eventually came down to the wire with No. 2 seeded Clarkton recording the final field goal to beat No. 1 seeded Holcomb 51-49 and win the Tri-County Conference Tournament for the first time since 2009.

“Since I’ve been at Clarkton we’ve never won the conference tournament,” Bidewell said. “This group has been through a lot this year and I’m more happy for them than I am of myself.”

Holcomb trailed 43-37 with 4:32 left before it rallied to force ties of 45, 47, and 49-all in the final three minutes.

“We locked in at the very end and made a little run of our own,” Holcomb coach Michael Snider said. “But congrats to Clarkton because they played a great game.”

Clarkton broke the final tie when Rica Brown hit a field goal in the paint with 10 seconds remaining to put the Reindeer on top 51-49. The game-winning play developed after Holcomb turned the ball over with 32 seconds remaining and Clarkton pushed the ball the length of the floor for a score after taking a timeout.

“It wasn’t the play I drew up,” Bidewell said. “We were trying to get a screen for Underwood. He got lost and the ball got in the hands of Rica Brown and he made a big play.”

Follwing Brown's score the Hornets moved the ball the length of the floor and called a timeout with 2.3 seconds remaining. After the timeout, Holcomb threw a pass from underneath its own basket to Nate Rhew who was a few feet from the rim. Rhew leaped to catch the high pass but Brown managed to knock the ball loose and time expired.

“We knew going in it was going to be a tough game,” Snider said. “Credit Clarkton for getting back in it. We’ve got to try to minimize other teams’ runs. But it still came down to the last possession and we got the look we wanted. It just didn’t go our way in the end. But I’m proud of the way we played in the conference this season and the effort we put out today after not being able to practice all week. I just wish things would’ve bounced our way in the end.”

Rhew put up a game-high 23 points for Holcomb (13-11). Dylan Bradshaw, who tallied eight points in the fourth quarter alone, also scored in double digits for the Hornets with 13 points.

Izaya Gorman paced Clarkton (15-8) with a dozen points. Caleb Underwood added 10 more points. Brown and Kade Coleman finished close behind with eight points each for the Reindeer.

“We’ve been working on being tougher down low,” Bidewell said. “At the start of the game we had three possessions where missed wide open shots. I think once we started playing a little tougher our shots started to fall.”

No. 2 Clarkton 51, No. 1 Holcomb 49

Clarkton2211414-51
Holcomb1091218-49

CLARKTON (51) - Caleb Plunkett 2, Izaya Gorman 12, Rica Brown 8, Bryant Redden 6, Caleb Underwood 10, Kade Coleman 8, Owen Morgan 5. FG 24, FT 0/5, F 7. (3-pointers: Gorman 2, Morgan 1; Fouled out: None.)

HOLCOMB (49) - Dylan Bradshaw 13, Zander Burke 6, Jacob Reeves-Crittendon 3, Eli Bader 4, Nate Rhew 23. FG 20, FT 7/9, F 8. (3-pointers: Reeves-Crittendon 1, Rhew 1; Fouled out: None.)

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