Tigers misfire against Braves
By PHIL GRAY
Gazette Sports Writer
ATHENS - It was tug-of-war, with four of the five people on one side stuck in mud.
It was a V8 engine, with seven of the cylinders trying to fire, but missing in the end.
It was, as McClain coach Rick VanMatre said, "... Our worst game of the year." The Tigers' nearly untouched run through the 2005-'06 basketball season hit a wall Friday in a 53-43 loss to Logan Elm in the district semifinals.
Danté Jackson had 22 points and a pair of McClain's post players combined for 21 more.
And that's it.
Sometimes postseason problems come with pretty simple solutions.
"You have to have somebody else shooting it in a little bit," VanMatre said.
Problem was, the Tigers didn't.
The game really swung on a pair of 3-pointers by Logan Elm's Kyle Reichelderfer in the first minute of the third quarter. After the first half ended with McClain down by only five, Reichelderfer's duo of treys pushed that lead to 11 and forced the Tigers into a situation they didn't face too often in their 19-1 regular season.
"Tonight we played a lot more man than we usually do. We got behind and couldn't play the match-up zone as much," VanMatre said. "The match-up zone was good for us in the first half, but then they hit two quick 3s in the second half and we had to play man and didn't do a very good job."
Forcing the Tigers out of the comfort of their zone defense was big - forcing out of their typical mindset might have been bigger.
It started early. Logan Elm's persistent patience bought the Braves a three-point lead in a very low-impact first quarter (the teams combined to score just 13 points) and the five-point advantage at the end of the second (just 15 points scored there).
But it was the fact that McClain scored just 11 points in the first half that had the biggest impact. For a team that scored fewer than 50 points just once during the regular season - and topped 70 points in 10 of their 20 games before tournaments - the failure to get anything going offensively was more than just a dent in the scoreboard.
It was a chink in their armor.
"If they make a couple of their shots early, it could be a different game," said Logan Elm coach Doug Stiverson.
He might have been right.
McClain shot poorly all night. The lack of execution early rubbed off on the second half. McClain's penchant for movement on offense, for coming off screens, for moving the ball and either finding the best shot or finding Jackson in a mismatch, just wasn't there against the Braves. The Tigers were forcing things. And worse, thing just weren't falling.
"(Logan Elm) did a good job, but part of it, when it gets tournament time, you're playing not to lose sometimes," VanMatre said. "Miss some shots early and you lose your edge sometimes. We missed a lot of wide-open shots early, shots we're accustomed to making, and (the players) lose their confidence and it gets in their heads"
Something obviously was. After Reichelderfer pushed the lead to 11 early in the third, McClain really went flat. The Tigers made 2 of the 9 shots they took in the third, and both of their buckets came in the paint - one of those with 4.4 seconds left in the quarter. Other than that, they were 0-for-6, all of those from beyond the 3-point arc.
The fourth quarter was more of the same.
Playing in extreme catch-up mode, McClain finally found success late in the final frame. Still, the Tigers were 9-for-21 from the field - 6-for-9 in the paint, 3-for-12 from beyond the arc.
"It's not like we have kids that haven't made 3s all year, they have," VanMatre said. "We did get some shots inside, especially (Jeremy) Webster (who finished with 12 points), so the mixture was there. But you've gotta make some of those 3-point shots to take the pressure off Danté and keep them from putting two, three people on him."
That was what the McClain superstar faced. Even with 13 of his 22 points coming in the fourth quarter, he was still shooting over and fighting through triple teams almost every time down the floor. Logan Elm had that luxury - it's something that comes when most of the people pulling the rope against you are knee-deep in mud.
"We wanted Danté not to shoot the 3," Stiverson said. "We wanted him to shoot the 2 and everyone else to shoot the 3."
That's exactly what they got. Until the fourth, when Jackson went 3-for-6 from beyond the arc, the sharpshooter did not bury a single bomb.
And neither did anyone else.
"Last year we had kids other than Danté step up and knock down shots," said VanMatre of McClain's victory over Logan Elm in last winter's district finals. "Today we didn't have anybody. Bottom line."
The other bottom line for McClain is 21-2 - the Tigers' overall record from the 2005-'06 season. Add a South Central Ohio League title and a sectional championship to that, and it comes out as a pretty sweet mixture.
But it sours a little when you throw in the seven graduating seniors, seven guys who have been, until Friday night, a part of back-to-back district championship teams. Guys who have been to the big stage, and had success on it.
"We do lose a lot," VanMatre said. "We have three kids coming back that have played a bunch. (The seniors) have accomplished a lot, but we still have Danté and some other people back next year, so we'll see what happens.
"A lot of people say our schedule wasn't tough this year, but I don't think it's that. I think tonight, we just shot a goose-egg."
As for the other side, Logan Elm finally has that elusive win over McClain, which bounced the Braves from the playoffs in each of the past two years. And Stiverson has some validation for a choice he made back in the spring - after all, if things had happened a little differently, Stiverson would have been the coach at CHS this season. But he turned down the job to stay at Logan Elm - and, eventually, get a chance at the district title.
"I feel like things happen for a reason," Stiverson said. "We've got a great group of guys. Our senior class, I can't say enough about them. They're a group that's won all the way up through. They play with a lot of heart and toughness, and they're going to lay it on the line.
"The only thing you can say about them is that they're winners." (Gray can be reached at 772-9302 or via e-mail at pgray@nncogannett.com)
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